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ANARCHISM :
Its Plnilosopliy and Scientific Basis
As Defined by Some of Its Apostles.
If the people are silent under oppression, it is lethargy —the forerunner of
Death to Public Liberty.' --T/io?7ias Jefferson.
BY
A. R. PARSONS.
Chicago:
Mrs. a. R. Parsons, Publisher,
785 Milwaukee Avk.
COPYRIGHT 1887,
BY
MRS. A. R. PARSONS.
THE :^EFOR]VlKI^.
All grim and soiled and brown with tan, .
I saw a Stronj? One, in his wrath.
Smiting the g^odless shrines of man
Along his path.
The Church beneath her trembling dome
Essayed in vain her ghostly charm :
Wealth shook within his gilded home
With strange alarm.
Fraud from his secret chambers fled
Before the sunlight bursting in:
Sloth drew her pillow o'er her head
To drown the din.
"Spare," Art implored, "yon holy pile ;
That grand, old time-worn turret, spare ;
Meek Reverence kneeling in the aisle
Cried out " Forbear !"
Gray-bearded Use, Avho, deaf and blind.
Groped for his old accustomed stone,
Leaned on his staff, and wept to find
His seat o'erthrown.
Young Romance raised his dreamy eyes,
O'erhung with paly locks of gold, —
"Why smite," he asked in sad surprise,
"The fair, the old ?"
Yet louder rang the Strong One's stroke,
Yet nearer flashed the axe's gleam ;
Shuddering and sick of heart I woke
As from a dream.
I looked : Aside the cloud -dust rolled —
The Waster seemed the Builder too;
Up springing from the ruined Old
I saw the New.
•Twas but the ruin of the bad, —
The wasting of the wrong and ill ;
Whate'er of good the old time had
W as living still.
Calm grew the brows of him I feared ;
The frown which awed me passed away;
And left behind a smile which cheered
Like breaking day.
The grain grew green on battle plains.
O'er swarded war-mounds grazed the cow
The slave stood forging from nis chains
The spade and plow.
Where frowned the fort, pavillions gay,
And cottage windows, flower-entwined,
Looked out upon the peaceful bav
And hills behind.
Throuo^h vine-wrcalhcd cups with wine once red
The lights on brimming crystal fell.
Drawn, sparkling, from the rivulet head
And mossy well.
Through prison walls, like heaven-sent hope,
Fresli breezes blew, and sunbeams strayed.
And with the idle gallows rope
The young child played.
Where the doomed victim in his cell
Had counted o'er the weary hours,
The school girls, answering to the bells
Came crowned with flowers.
Grown wiser for the lessons given,
I fear no longer, for I know
That, where the share is deepest driven.
The best fruits grow.
The out- worn rite, the old abuse
The pious fraud transparent grown,
The good held captive in the use
Of wrong alone, —
These wait their doom, from that great law
Which makes the past time serve to-day;
And fresher life the world shall draw
From their decay.
Oh backward looking son of time !
The new is old, the old is new,
The cycle ®f a change sublime
Still sweepi-ng through.
So wisely taught the Indian seer ;
Destroying Seva, forming Brahm,
Who wake by turns, earth's love and fear
Are one, the same.
Idlv, as thou, in that old day
Thou mournest, did thy sire repine ;
So in his time, thy child grown gray
Shall sigh for thine.
But life shall on and upward go ;
Th' eternal step of Progress beats
To that great anthem, calm and slow.
Which God repeats.
Take heart ! — The Waster builds again —
A charmed life old (goodness hatn;
The tares may perish, — but the grain
Is not for death.
God works in all things ; all obey
His first propulsion from the night;
Wake thou and watch ! — ^the world is gray
With morning light'
— Whittier.
* This poem had long been a favorite with Mr. Parsons, and was recited bv him to the jailers
and the reporters but a short time before his death.
M161G94
DEDICATED
To the toiling masses in every land, striving for their
Economic Emancipation,
not the least of whom is my beloved wife,
LUCY E. PARSONS.
C4fr^'
/;4>v-<i^^>^
« Let the voice of the people be heard! O— *'
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGB
CHAPTER I. Capitalism — Its Development in the United States. 11
II. " " " " " (continued) 15
III. « «' " " " « 19
IV. " — Its Origin and Development in Europe 21
PART II.
CHAPTER I. Anarchy on Trial 61
II. Views of the Prisoners 53
August Spies on Anarchy 53
Address of Michael Schwab 66
Oscar Neebe's Remarks 72
Adolph Fischer 74
Address of Louis Lingg 83
George Engel on Anarchism 86
Samuel Fielden on Socialism and Anarchism 89
Albert R. Parsons on Anarchism 92
Parsons' Plea for Anarchy 107
Lucy E. Parsons on Anarchy 109 /
III. The Scientific Basis OF Anarchy 111
IV. The Coming Anarchy . 123
V. An Anarchist on Anarchy 136
VI. Dyer D. Lum on Anarchy . 149
1. What is Anarchy.''
2. What Anarchy Offers.
3. Who should be Anarchists.
4. Co-operation.
VII. Anarchy— C. L. James 159
VIII. The Social Revolution 164
/
APPENDIX.
Philosophic Anarchism . 171
A. R. Parsons' Appeal 178
Open Letter to Governor Oglesby _ 185
Law vs. Liberty 186
Views OF General Parsons 188
Letter TO George Francis Train _ 193
Arrest OF Mrs. Parsons and Children 194
Last Hours OF Life 197
Last Lettf.r to av Or.i) Comrade 200
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
To MY Friekds and the Public :
With the aid of friends, I am enabled to present for your perusal
and consideration, the last efforts of my dear deceased husband, to
enlighten the seekers after truth and information upon the great and
burning questions of the age : the relations of the wage-earner to the
wage-absorber in society.
This book, as the reader is doubtless aware, was prepared near the
close of an eighteen months' incarceration in a lonely, narrow,
prison-cell. If it should at times lack any of the old-time vigor
which characterized his former writings, please remember that the
author was debarred from all the advantages and elements that go to
making up a full and complete life ; that from the day on which he
voluntarily came forward and gave himself into the hands of the State,
(the ''Law and Order" people,) he had never breathed a breath of pure,
fresh air, never looked upon a growing sprig of grass, never beheld
either earth or sky ; that nothing met his eye but frowning, bare stone
walls relieved only by bolts, bars and chains ; that in his 6x8 inner
tomb he was confined twentv one hours six days in the week, and forty
hours on " the Lord's day ' — from Saturday afternoon until Monday
morning; and that he was denied the company of friends excepting the
few moments when granted the privilege of conversing with them
through a close wire netting, and having never touched the hand of
even his wife, save twice, through all the long period of his imprison-
ment.
Should there be a tinge of sadness in these last words of a noble
and courageous soul, remember they were written beneath the shadow
of that coming tragedy, whose gloom fell athwart all true and loving
hearts.
With these few remarks — meaning no apology where none is
needed— I present to you these last efforts of one who lived in the
world with the one purpose of making it better and happier for his
having lived.
And now, I speak as one who knows and has the right to speak :
No nobler, purer truer, more unselfish man ever lived, than Albert R.
Parsons, and when he and his comrades were sacrificed on the altar of
class hatred, the people of the nineteenth century committed the
hideous crime of strangling their best friends.
Fraternally yours, Lucy E. Paesons.
TO THE I^EADER.
To trace the origin and growth of the Wage-Labor system, known as
modern Capitalism, to delineate the Philosophy and Scientific Basis of the
modern Labor movement, known as Anarchism, is the purport of this little
book.
The first part of this work gives a historical outline of the period
prior to the Revolution of 1776 up to the present time in the United States ; it
also traces the origin and development of the wage system in Europe from
the fourteenth century, and contains copious extracts from Karl Marx's
"Capital" on the economic law of wages.
The second part is devoted to extracts from the speeches of the
eight condemned Anarchists, Samuel Fielden, August Spies, Oscar Neebe,
Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, George Engle, A. R. Parsons and Michel
Schwab on the subject of "Anarchy," which were delivered before the court
in reply to the question why sentence should not be pronounced; also
articles defining Anarchy, by Peter Krapotkin, Elisee Reclus, C. L. James
and other well-known Anarchists.
This book has been written and compiled in response to the public
demand for information upon the subjects treated of. The circumstances
under which the work has been performed, in my dungeon, beneath the
shadow of the gallows, should, if aught could, lend additional interest and
importance to the matters presented therein. If the public is furnished
information, or assisted in reaching a clearer understanding of the great
question of Capital and Labor by a perusal of these pages, I shall deem
that a sufficient reward for my humble effort to supply it.
THE AUTHOR.
Cell 29, Cook Co., Jail. )
Chicago, Illinois, Oct. 27th, 1887. \
HoiiLY Lodge, Kensington, ?
London, May 23, 1857. )
As long as you (Americans) have a boundless extent of fertile and \moccupied land, your la-
boring population will be far more at ease than the laboring population of the old worid, and
while that is the case the Jeffersonian politics may continue to ex st without causing any fatal cal-
-amity. But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England.
Wages will be low, and will fluctuate with you as well as with us. You will have your Manchesters
a,nd Birminghams, and in those Manchesters and Birminghams hundreds of thousands of artisans
will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test.
Distress everywhere make^ the laborer mutinous and discontented.
* * * The day will come when in the state of New York there will be a multitude of
people, none of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a din-
ner. _ On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for vested rights, strict observance of
public faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists and usurers,
and asking why anyl>ody should be permitted to drink champagne and ride in a carriage, while
thousands of honest folks are in want of nece saries. What is the workingman likely to do when
he hears his children cry for bread? — Lord MacauIiEY.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
Capitalism — Its Development in the United States.
Among all nations, the United States of America has alone possessed
the opportunity for developing representative or Republican government
to its utmost. Separated by two oceans, isolated and comparatively
secure from sudden invasion or the diplomatic embroglios of imperialistic
Europe and Asia, the united capacity of Republican government to
minister to the peace and welfare of its citizens and the experience —
history — of one hundred years has formed the record from which the
living present learns its lesson of the past.
Free government, a free people, was the talismanic charm which
caused the emigrant to abandon the old world and hasten to the new.
The population of the colonies in 1776 wa*s 3,500,000. Today the
population of the United States is estimated at 65,000,000. The control-
ling influence which impelled the emigrant to the United States was the
belief in the inducement held out that a home for his loved ones could be
acquired. It is, therefore, a fact, that the United States has been devel-
oped and populated because of economic rather than political influences.
It has been and is still the belief of many that the comparative economic
freedom which the poor have enjoyed in this country was owing to its
political institutions, its republican form of government. Lord Macauley,
whose prognostication is quoted at the opening of this chapter, foresaw what
experience has since demonstrated, to-wit : That the Republic itself was
the result and the cause of the comparative economic liberty which pre-
vailed in America.
The revolution of 1776 was precipitated when the British government
sought to impose "taxation without representation" upon the colonies, but
there was a long antecedent train of offenses which the colonists had en-
dured. The British nobility, aristocrats and landlords had been for years
past engaged in seizing upon the wild lands of America and subjecting its
inhabitants to the servitude prevailing in the old world. A few noblemen
held "})atents'' from George III, which covered vast regions of territory
and em))raced millions of acres. The revolution of 1776 was inspired by
determination to escape the tyranny of British rule, from the oppressions
of which most of the American colonists had fled. The authors of the
Declaration of Independence gave the key-note of that struggle when they
proclaimed the inalienable Rights of Man as the issue involved. During
12 ' THE PEILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
the seven years' war which followed, and for five years afterward (1787)
the inhabitants of the colonies were practically without government or law.
Thomas Paine, of whom it has been said he did as much with his pen as
Washington had done with his sword for American liberty, describes in his
writings the motives and purposes of the men engaged in that conflict.
Paine' s work, entitled "Rights of Man," embodied the "American Idea' ^
of liberty as then contended for. He says:
It ia therefore a perversion of terms to say that a charter (government) gives
rights. It operate^ by a contrary effect,— that of taking rights away. Rights are
inherently in all the inhabitants, but charters, by annulling those rights in the
majority, leave the right by exclusion in the hands of a few. If charters were
constructed so as to express in direct terms "that every inhabitant who is not a
member of a corporation shall not exercise the right of voting," such charters
would, in the face, be charters, not of rights, but of exclusion. The effect is the
same under the form in which they now stand; the only persons on whom they
now operate are the persons whom they exclude.
The period following the war, when the colonies or states were
engaged in framing the national constitution, is most instructive, as it
was now that the fruits of that struggle were to be garnered. Some of
the states were slow to enter the compact and some for a time refused to
do so, such was the fear of the people for centralized government.
Finally, a reconciliation was brought about mainly by those whose
property rights gave them influence and power, and delegates from all
the states were chosen to the national convention to form the Federal
Constitution. Here were assembled men of varying ideas, instincts and
interests. But the predominating influence was the property interest,
property in land, etc., but especially in slaves. The people having
struggled and suffered for seven long and bloody years, were alive to the
importance of the work of the convention and its possible effects upon
their welfare. But there were those who reverenced human rights only
so far as these did not intrude upon their property rights. Thus began
the game of Politics. The convention found it necessary to conduct their
proceedings with closed doors, excluding from its sessions all who were
not members. Here, for four months the "Star Chamber" (secret) sessions
were held in an endeavor to bring about a compromise of divergent
interests and ideas upon the property question. The debates were long
and heated. At times the convention was threatened with disruption.
There were those who believed in a landed aristocracy and restricted
suffrage, led by Alexander Hamilton; others wanted free land and man-
hood suffrage; and still others contended the liberation of the chattel slave
was included in the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, — and
vice versa. A compromise was finally reached which left the rights of
property in slaves, land and money intact. The assertion of the Declara-
tion of Independence that "all men were created free and equal, and pos-
sessed with certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" was defended by those who favored a constitution
framed in accordance with the intent and spirit of that document. The slave
holding interest objected and held that the blacks — the chattel slaves —
were not included in the meaning or intent of the Declaration. John
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 13
Adams, the aristocrat, who also favored a limited monarchy as against
Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Henry, Washington and others, in the memor-
able debate upon this question said: ''What matters it whether you give
the food and clothes to the slaves direct, or whether you just give him
enough in wages to purchase the same'-"' This view of the question finally
prevailed and was accepted as the basis of compromise. The rights of
property triumphed. The wage-worker was categorical with the chattel
slave. Indeed the difference was recognized among the wealthy class as
existing not only in form but identical in effect. The Constitution as agreed
upon by the convention was submitted to the states — the people for ratifi-
cation or rejection. Though dissatisfied, the people were induced to
accept it, on the ground that universal suffrage, vesting all law — making
power in the people ; guaranteeing free speech, free press, and unmolested
assemblage, the right to keep and bear arms ; speedy trial by an impartial
jury; and protection against unreasonable and unlawful search or seizure
of persons or property — were constitutional safeguards deemed ample
protection for their rights.
The United States formed a vast, unsettled, inexhaustible region. A
comparatively small strip of country from Maine to Florida was sparsely
inhabited. All who desired could acquire a competency. The wage-class
felt no apprehension on that score. The doors of the nation were thrown
open and the poor and miserable and despoiled of every clime were
invited to come to the "land of the free and home of the brave" as the
"harbor and refuge of the oppressed." That invitation was eagerly heard
and quickly accepted, and to this fact alone is due the rapid develop-
ment and growth of the Republic. For years after the adoption of the
Constitution the slave trade flourished and thousands upon thousands of
ignorant helpless Africans were kidnapped and brought in chains to the
XJnited States. The treatment of the great populous tribes of Indians
was of a similar character. Those who could not be subdued and en-
slaved were killed, and as America was the native heath of the Indian
they chose death rather than slavery, until there remains scarcely a rem-
nant of this once powerful race upon the continent. About 1880, when
population had greatly increased, in common with land values and other
property, the special advantages of chattel-slave labor which was bo ap-
parent in a new, unsettled country began to diminish. With a growth of
population came an augmentation of wage-laborers, and the modes of
industry, such as manufacture, etc., where not very well adapted to chattel
labor. It began to appear that icage labor was cheaper and therefore
more remuneratire to capital than iras chattel -slare labor. There arose
in consequence conflicting interests upon this subject, which by degrees —
as population increased — developed into sectional conflicts, which were
geographically designated "north" and "south."
For certain forms of labor — agriculture for instance — chattel-slave
labor was considered to be more profitable than wage labor. But in man-
ufacture and all departments* of skilled industry the labor of wage-workers
was preferred because more remunerative. The supply of chattel-slaves
was cut off by a law enacted prohibiting the slave trade, and this fact was
alone suflicient to cause the death-blow to that form of labor. But the
14 THE PHIHLOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
simple, primitive forms of production for which the labor of chattel- slaves
was adopted caused the owners of that form of capital to invest it where
it would bring the greatest returns. Therefore the slave-holding interests
gravitated to the southern portion of the United States, where a mild
climate, lengthened seasons and consequently cheaper clothes, fuel and
shelter was to be obtained. The propertied class — capitalists — were in-
tent only on profits and losses. Out of these two forms of labor — chattel
and wage — arose the "irrepressible conflict" and the political shibboleth,
"America must be all slave or all free." The slave-holding interests be-
came alarmed at the increasing power of the wage-labor system. They
perceived their "vested right" to lawfully, constitutionally hold property
in slaves to be threatened. Their power had until now been supreme in
national affairs and they were blinded with arrogance. They refused all
overtures to peaceably manumit their slaves by means of gradual emanci-
pation, to be recompensed out of the public treasury, but, on the contrary^
indignantly rejected all such proposals and insisted upon their constitu-
tional right to extend slavery into the Territories. Their attitude sharp-
ened the contest between the wage-labor capitalists and the chattel slave-
owners. Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the
United States in IcSOO "the South" seceeded from "the North" and set
up a Confederacy which recognized chattle-slave labor as its corner-stone.
Mr. Lincoln, though in sentiment an "Abolitionist," an ardent defender of
man's abstract right to life and liberty, was also, for the time being, the
representative of the wage-labor system. The exigen6ies of the war of
the rebellion afforded the sought-for opportunity, the Emancipation
Proclamation was issued as "a military necessity." Chattel-slave labof
was abolished and the system of wage-labor established in its stead.
While upon its surface this struggle between the "North" and the
"South" was waged ostensibly in behalf of "free" against "slave" labor,
and was apparently a political question waged for the preservation of the
Union, it was, in fact, an economic question growing out of the two diverse
and conflicting systems of labor, viz. : chattel and wage. The owners of
capital in the form of chattel-slaves were compelled by armed revolution
to relinquish that form of property. They threw themselves as a barrier
across the pathway of societary evolution, of historic development and
were swept aside by its irresistable force.
The Rebellion of 1861 was a failure. The "Rebellion of 177G was a
success. The former was a struggle against the evolutionary develop-
ment of modern capitalism ; the latter was fought on the line with and
for progress. Both contests are generally regarded as political; but the
underlying, moving cause in each was economic. The apparently polit-
ical character of these two revolutionary struggles arises from the fact
the contest in both instances was waged by one portion of the propertied
class against the other upon questions of property.
Ever since the organization of the Government of the United States
there has existed among the people a small, t)ut earnest minority, known
as "Abolitionists," because they advanced the abstract right of " all men "
to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." But the Abolitionists
were an insignificant minority. Their demands w^re never heeded until
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHI8M. 15
the requirements of modern capitalism began to require an extension of
the system of wage labor in preference to the system of chattel-slave
labor. Capital invested in wage labor and capital invested in chattel-
slave labor were hostile in their interests. The slave-holding interests-
were more sensitive and apprehensive of injury and were in conse-
quence easily mobilized on the political battle-field. From the organi-
zation of the* Government up to the slave-holders' rebellion in 1861 the
propertied interests in chattel- slaves had practical control and direction,
of the affairs of Government.
CHAPTER II.
Capitalism — Its Development in the United States. — Continued.
With the termination of the war of 1861 began the second epoch of
capitalism in the United States. The ex-chattel slave was enfranchised^
— made a political sovereign. He was now a "freeman" without an inch
of soil, a cent of money, a stitch of clothes or a morsel of food. He was
free to compete with his fellow wage-worker for an opportunity to serve
capital. The conditions of his freedom consisted in the right to work on
the terms dictated by his employer, or — starve. There no longer existed
any sectional conflicts or other conflicts of a disturbing political nature.
All men were now "free and equal before the law." A period of unpre-
cedented activity in capitalistic circles set in. Steam and electricity
applied to machinery was employed in almost every department of
industry, and compared with former times fabulous wealth was created.
Political parties, no longer divided in interest upon property ques-
tions, all legislation was centered upon a development of the resources of
the country. To this end vast tracts of goverment land, amounting ta
many million acres, equalling in extent seven states the size of Illinois were
donated as subsidies to the projectors of railways. The national debt,
incurred to prosecute the rebellion, and amounting to three billion dollars
was capitalized, by creating interest upon the bonds. Hundreds of
millions were given as bonuses to pro})Osed railways, steamship lines, etc.
A protective tariff law was enacted which for the past twenty years has
imposed a tax upon the people amounting to one billion dollars annually.
A National Banking system was established which gave control of finance
to a banking monopoly. By means of these and other laws capitalist
combinations, monopolies, syndicates, and trusts were created and fos-
tered, until they obtained absolute control of the principle avenues of
industry, commerce and trade. Arbitrary prices are fixed by these com-
16 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM.
binations and the consumers — mainly the poor — are compelled by their
necessities to pay whatever price is exacted. Thus during the past
twenty-live years, — since the abolition of the chattel-slave labor system —
twenty -five thousand millionaires have been created, who by their combi-
nations control and virtually own the fifty billion dollars estimate wealth
of the United States, while on the other hand twenty million wage workers
have been created whose poverty forces them into a ceaseless competition
with each other for opportunity to earn the bare necessities of existence.
What had, therefore, required generations to accomplish in Great Britain
and the continent, was achieved during the past twenty-five years in the
United States, to wit : The practical destruction of the middle-class (small
dealers, farmers, manufacturers, etc.), and the division of society into two
classes — the wage worker and capitalist. While the fabulous fortunes
resulting from legislation enacted in the name of the people were being
acquired, the people were not conscious of the evil effects which would
flow from those laws. Not until the evil effects were felt were they aware
of the slavery to which they had been lawfully reduced. The first great
pinch of the laws was felt throughout the whole country in the financial
panic of 1873-77, resulting in the latter year in wide-spread strikes of the
unemployed and poorly paid wage class. In response to the demand for
information upon economic matters. Bureaus of Labor were established in
many States, as also for the general government at Washington. These
statistics related to operations and effects of capitalism in the chief
departments of industry and trade. The absorption of the smaller indus-
tries etc., etc., into the great corporations, syndicates, etc., was very rapid.
The National commercial agency (Bradstreet's) furnished statistics showing
unprecedented bankruptcies. The Agricultural Bureaus of the various
States gave accounts of simular depressions in agriculture. Illinois, the
richest agricultural State in the United States and for that reason a
criterion for the others, is shown by the statistics of the State Board of
Agriculture for 1886 to have over three-fourths of its farms mortgaged,
and that the crops for the last five years have not paid the cost of produc-
tion! Illinois is the greatest corn producing State in the Union and the
statistics given by the State Board of Agriculture on that crop is as
follows :
For the vear 1882 at a loss of Sl,273,571.00
For the year 1883 at a loss of 8,621,440.00
For the year 1884 at a loss of 11,780,554.00
For the year 1885 at a loss of 10,831,701.00
For the year 1886 at a loss of 19,070,209.00
Total loss in five years $51,577,475.00
The Bureau also states that more than two-thirds of the farms which
have suffered these losses are mortgaged. Investigation shows the same
condition exists in every State. Statistics show that the condition of the
farming class, as a class, is far worse than it was twenty or thirty years ago.
The American farmer as a class is enslaved by mortgages, and rapidily
drifting into peasantry and serfdom agriculture. Meanwhile the stupend-
ously increasing aggregation of wealth into the hands of a few is
going on.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM. 17
•In manufacture statistics it is shown that while the number of man-
ufacturers are diminishing from 10 to 30 per cent every year the remainder
are increasing their wealth enormously, and that while the wages of labor
have been diminishing yearly the number of workers wanting work and
unable to procure it have rapidly increased. The United States census
for 1880, gives in Census Bulletin 802 elaborate details of capital invested,
number of persons employed, the amount of wages paid, value of materials
used, the value of all the establishments of manufacturing industry, gas
excepted, in each of the States and Territories as follows :
The number of industrial establishments is 253,840, having a capital of
$2,790,223,506. Of this number New York has 42,739, with a capital of $514,246,575,
employing 364,551 males above sixteen years of age, and 137,393 females above the
age of fifteen years. The total amount paid in wages during that year aggregated
$298,634,029, and the value of the products was $1,080,638,696.
Pennsylvania follows the Empire state with 31,225 workshops, 387,112 em-
ployes, and a capital of $447,499,993. The value of its products is $744,748,045,
or $335,890,651 less than that of New York. In the northern states, including
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, there are
153,453 places of industry, or 8,982 more than in the states of Delaware, Mary-
land, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ten-
nessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and Texas.
Rhode Island, the smallest State in the Union, has 2,205 workshops, which is
1,459 more than Delaware, the next smallest, and only 791 less than Texas, the
largest State in the Union. In amount of capital involved, however, Rhode Island
is $66,330,382 ahead of Texas, and the value of her products is $104,163,621, while
-that of Texas is only $20,719,128.
The District of Columbia, with 971 establishments and $5,552,526 capital, is
ahead of Florida and Colorado in the value of its products and in the number of
workshops. The District employs 5,495 males above sixteen years of age, and
1,389 females above fifteen years of age, and 1,389 children and youths. The
establishments pay to these hands $33,924,612 in wages yearly, and the products
manufactured aggregate $11,882,316, the value of materials used being $3,365,400.
Colorado, the youngest State, which was admitted into the Union in 1876,
can show but very little increase in the value of its products over that of the
District of Columbia. This State has 599 establishments and a capital of
$4,311,714. It employs 4,625 males, 266 females, 156 children, and pays in wages
$2,314,427, or $1,610,185 less than is paid for wages in this District.
Forming the rear of this long line of States and Territories comes Arizona
with 66 workshops and an invested capital of $272,600. There are 216 men em-
ployed in the Territory, which, added to the two females and the two children,
make a total of 220 persons actively engaged in industrial occupations. The total
amount of wages is $111,180, while the value of the products from these establish-
ments is $615,655.
In the 253,840 workshops throughout the country, the average number of
hands employed is 2,738,950. Of this number 2,025,279 are males, 531,753 females,
and 181,918 children. The total amount of wages paid out during the year is
$947,919,074, and the value of the products is $5,369,667,706.
The list quotes the value of the materials used in manufacturing as aggre-
gating $3394,340,029, which leaves a profit on products of $1,975,327,677. When
the amount paid for wages is deducted from this, there remains a clear margin
on the figures quoted of $1,027,408,003.
From the statistics given above we learn that the average wages of
each wage worker amounts to $304 per annum, and the average annual
net profit on the labor product of 6ach wage -vyorker is $374. The United
States census for the year 1880 contains tables which show that the daily
18 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAHCHISM.
average product of eacli wage worker in manufacturing industry is
valued at $10, and the daily average wage at $1.15. The increase in
the quantity of wealth which a wage laborer can now produce as com-
pared to 1 880 is ascribed to the increased application of machinery and
the increased sub- division and consequent simplification of the process
of production. To this fact is also due the diminution of the share
(wages) of their product, which the workers now receive, as well as the
increase of the number of enforced idle since 1880.
The United States Census for 1880 gives the annual average wages of
each laborer engaged in manufacture at $304, and the annual average net
profit on capital invested at $374. In other words, each laborer produced
values amounting to $678, for which they received $304 in wages, the
remaining $374 being the amount which the owners of capital charged
them for its use.
The wage system is the foundation upon which the United States
Government, in common with all other governments, rests. This founda-
tion was laid in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, as described by
John Adams when he said: "What matters it whether you give the food
and clothes to the slave direct, or whether you just give him enough in
wages to purchase the same ?" Nearly one hundred y^ars later the citizens
of the United States appealed to armed revolution; the Constitution was
set aside and millions of property and nearly a million human lives were
sacrificed in order to place the chattel slave upon the same industrial
plane as the wage worker. Before the inauguration of the war of the
rebellion offers were made to the slaveholders to pay them $1,000 a
piece for their slaves, as being far cheaper and more humane than to em-
broil the nation in civil war. That price was indignantly rejected, as be-
ing too small; besides the slaveholders held that chattel slavery was a
"divine institution," and it would, therefore, be sacrilege to attempt its
abolition. In 1880, sixteen years after the close of the rebellion, the
United States Census states there was invested in the woolen industries
of the country capital amounting to $159,000,000, and the number of wage
workers employed 100,000. The capital represented an average invest-
ment of $995 to each wage laborer. The cost of raw material was
$164,000,000; the value of manufactured material was placed at $267,-
000,000. The increased value of the manufactured material over the raw
is placed at $107,000,000. That upon $995 invested, an annual profit of
$343 was obtained, while the average annual wages of each operative was
$293, or fifty dollars less than the income derived from the $995.
Chattel slaves before the war Were valued at $1,000 apiece. Sixteen
years after the abolition of chattel slavery, wage workers employed in
manufactures in John Adams' State (Massachusetts) were worth, commer-
cially, $850, or $150 less than the former chattel slave.
These statistics prove the claim made by the supporters of the wage
system of labor that wage labor is cheaper than chattel labor. They
demonstrate the economic law of competition, which is the rule of the
cheapest. The propertyless class — the wage workers — are by competition
forced to sell their labor— themselves — to the lowest bidder, or starve.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 19
CHAPTER III.
Capitalism. — Its Development in the United States. — Continued.
With the close of the rebellion of 1861, what is now known as the
labor movement, began to assume large proportions. Not until now was
there a very numerous and stationary wage class. In consequence, that
state of affairs predicted by Lord Macauley, and quoted in our opening chap-
ter, began to appear. Trades unions, labor imions, etc., composed of wage
laboreis had heretofore existed in small numbers, but were now rapidly
formed as production in mass was increasingly developed. Strikes began
to bo frequently resorted to in order to prevent a reduction or to cause an
increase of wages. The first national movement of organized labor was
the effort made to inaugurate the eight -hour system throughout the
United States in LSGS. That attempt was defeated.
The effort to introduce the eight-hour system has been made repeat-
edly since., sometimes by isolated trades unions, at other times by national
or international unions, and lastly by the Federated Trades' Unions of th^
United States and Canada. This latter body, representing 4(X),000 organ-
ized workmen, met in Chicago, in 1884, in what they styled an "Interna-
tional Congress of Organized Labor," and fixed upon a date. May 1, 1886,
to inaugurate the eight-hour system. The organization of the Knights of
Labor in 1869 had increased its membership to 400,000 in 1884. One of
the principal objects of this organization was the establishment of the
eight-hour system of labor. At this date, 1884, a million organized wage-
workers in the United States considered the establishment of the eight-
hour system one of the main objects of their organization. The agitation
for a reduction of the houi's of labor culminated in the strike of 360,000
men on May 1, 1886. In Chicago, the center of the eight-hour move-
ment, over 40,000 workingmen went on a strike for the eight-hour work-
day. On May 8 some of the strikers were fired on by the police, killing
one and wounding several. On May 4 workingmen held an indignation
meeting which was broken up by the police, when a dynamite bomb was
thrown, which killed seven ])olicemen and wounded fifty.
The effort to inaugurate the eight-hour work-day again proved a
failure. The* jnhilosophy of the eight-hour movement, defined by the Bos-
ton Eight-Hour League, is as follows :
"Resolved, That poverty is the great fact with which the labor movemen*
deals;
"That co-operation in labor is the final result to be obtained;
" That a reduction of the hours of labor is the first step in labor- reform; and
that the emancix)ation of labor from the slavery and ignorance of poverty solves-
all the problems that now most disturb and perplex mankind.
" Tliat oiglit hours do not mean less wages;
20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
"That men are never paid, as a rule, according to what they earn, but accord-
ing to the average cost of living;
" That in the long run — within certain limits— Zess hours means more pay —
whether they work by the day or by the piece;
'' That reducing the hours increases the purchasing power of wages as well
as the amount of wealth produced;
" That dear men mean cheap productions, and cheap men mean dear pro-
ductions;
" That six cents a day in China is dearest, and three dollars a day in America
is cheapest;
" That the moral causes that have made three dollars a day cheaper than six
cents a day will make higher wages still cheaper;
" That less hours mean reducing the profits and fortunes that are made on
labor and its results;
" More knowledge and more capital for the laborer; tho wages system grad-
ually disappearing through higher wages;
"Less poor people to borrow money, and less wealthy ones to lend it, and a
natural decline in the rates of interest on money ;
"More idlers w^orking, and more workers thinking; the motives to fraud re-
duced, and fewer calls for special legislation;
" Women's wages increased, her household labor reduced, better opportuni-
ties for thought and action, and the creation of motives strong enough to secure
the ballot;
" Beaching the great causes of intemperance — extreme wealth and extreme
poverty;
" And the salvation of Republican institutions;
" That whether national banks are abolished or bonds are taxed, or w^hether
taxes or tariffs are high or low, or w hether greenbacks or gold, or any t?ystem of
finance proposed is adopted, or a single tax on land, or civil service, or one term
for president shall prevail, are not lahorer^s questions, because they have no ap-
preciable relation to the wage-system, through which the wage classes secure all
that they can ever obtain of the world's wealth until they become sufficiently
wealthy and intelligent to co-operate in its production; and whether the masses
"have anything to choose between a democrat, or republican, or other candidate
turns entirely upon the question which one of the candidates will be most likely
to secure the legislation for reduced hours of labor, as well as the enforcement
upon all government works of the law already enacted.
''''Resolved, That the factory system of our country that employs tens of
thousands of women and children eleven and twelve hours a day; that owns or
contiols in its own selfish interest the pulpit and the press; that prevent the
operative classes from making themselves felt in behalf of less hours, through a
remorseless exercise of the power of discharge; that is rearing a population of
children and youth whose sickly appearance and scanty or utterly neglected
schooling, is proving year by year that the " lords of the loom and the lords of
the lash were natural allies in the conflict between freedom and slavery."
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 21
CHAPTEE IV.
Capitalism — Its Origin and Development in Europe.
The wage system of labor is a despotism It is coercive and arbi-
trary. It compels the wage-worker, under a penalty of hunger, misery
and distress of wife and children to obey the dictation of the employer.
The individuality and personal libei-ty of the wage-worker, and those
dependent upon him is destroyed by the wage -system. A republican
form of government does not alter the class servitude of the wage-worker.
While governments are necessarily despotic — they may difPer in degree.
But all governments based upon the wage-labor system are essentially
the same. The government of the United States, based upon the wage-
labor system, does not, and cannot guarantee the inalienable right of the
wage-workers to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This fact
is more apparent each day. Under the republic, the politician is a mere
spoils -hunter. Bribery, intimidation and hypocricy is practiced upon the
poor and ignorant voter, who is given a choice between capitalist candi-'
dates and measures. Halls of legislation are mere debating clubs of the
rich — the propertied class — where legislation has for its sole object, the
adjustment of the special, and sometimes conflicting, interest of this class.
The judicial and executive departments of a republican form of gov-
ernment are the officers or committees who administer the laws of the
propertied class. The wage-class are by their economic dependence kept
in ignorance and fear. They vote, but vote as a class only upon capitalist
questions. The government itself is the instrument of capitalism to per-
petuate the wage -system. Within this circle of government the votes of
the workers have been unable to effect any amelioration of their condition.
This is the experience of one hundred years of representative government
in the United States, with- the increase of population from 3,500,000 in
1776 to 65,000,000 in 1886 has also developed the wage-system upon
which the government was founded- One hundred years' experience
proves, that those who control the industries of the country — control its
votes; that wealth votes; that poverty cannot vote; that citizens who must
sell their labor or starve, will sell their votes when the same alternative
is presented. The working-class of the United States have been deluded
for one hundred years, with the belief that they possessed political sov-
ereignty and law-making powers. They have believed that they could
make laws in their own behalf, although they have not made or compelled
the enforcement of any laws outside of capitalist interests. The wage-
system of labor subjects the man of labor to the control of the monopo-
lizers of the means of labor — the resources of life. Social miser^% mental
degredation and political dependence is the state of those who are
deprived of the means of existence. Political liberty is possessed by those
22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
only who also possess economic liberty. The wage -system is the economic
servitude of the workers. Four hundred years ago, the wage-system in
Europe began to gradually supercede the surf age- system of labor. Previ-
ous to the fourteenth century, a system of vassalage existed in all nations,
except a few guilds or trades in the larger cities. Under vassalage, the
proprietor of an estate was owner of the men, women and children upon
that estate, and when the estate was sold, these men, women and children
were inventoried and sold to the purchaser. The law, defined the status
of the vassal or serf as a fixture to the soil. The law was that they
could not be parted from each other, or removed from the estate. In this
respect vassalage differed from chattel slave labor. As at the present
time, so in the past, the history of society is the history of class strug-
gles. Freemen and slaves, patricians and plebeians, nobles and serfs,
guild members and journeymen; in other words, the oppressors and
oppressed have engaged each other in this class -struggle. These conflicts
have sometimes been open, at other times concealed, but never ceasing.
This continuous struggle has invariably terminated in a revolutionary alter-
ation of the social system, or in the total destruction of the contending
classes.
In earlier historical epochs, we find almost everywhere a minute
division and subdivision of society into classes or castes — a variety of
grades in social life. In ancient Rome were the partricians, knights,
plebeians, slaves ; in Mediaeval Europe, feudal lords, vassals, burghers jour-
neymen, serfs ; and in each of these classes there were again grades and
distinctions.
Modern Bourgeois (capitalist) society, which arose fi'om the ruins
ef the feudal system has not wiped out the antagonism of classes. New
classes, new conditions of oppression, new modes and forms of carrying
on the struggle, have been substituted for the old ones. The characteristic
of our epoch — the epoch of the Bourgeoisie, or middle class — is that the
struggle between the various social classes has been reduced to its simplest
form. Society tends more and more to be divided into two great hostile
classes — to- wit: The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. This class strug-
gle arises from and is inherent in the wage-system.
How that system operates in minutia, in detail; how it effects the
laborer and the capitalist has been clearly and scientifically formulated
by Karl Marx in his work entitled "Capital," a chapter from which is
here quoted.
Wage -Labor and Capital. — What are Wages and How are They
Determined ?'
" If we were to ask the laborers, ' How much wages do you get ?' one
would reply, ' I get a couple of shillings a day from my employer ;' an-
other, ' I get half-a-crown,' and so on. According to the different trades
tiO which they belong, they would name different sums of money which
they receive from their particular employers, either for working for a
certain length of time, or for performing a certain piece of work ; for ex-
ample, either for weaving an ell of cloth, or for setting up a certain
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 23
amount of type. But in spite of this difference in their statements there
is one point in which they would all agree; their wages are the amount of
money which their employer pays them either for working a certain length
of time, or for a certain amount of work done.
" Thus their employer buys their work for money. For money they
sell their work to him. With the same sum for which the employer has
bought their work, as for instance, with a couple of shillings, he might
have bought four pounds of sugar, or a proportionate amount of any other
wares. The two shillings with which he buys the four pounds of sugar,
are the price of four pounds of sugar. The two shillings with which he
buys labor for twelve hours, are the price of twelve hours' work. Work
is therefore as much a commodity as sugar, neither more nor less, only
they measure the former by the clock, the latter by the scales.
'' The laborers exchange their own commodity with their employers'
— work for money ; and this exchange takes place according to a fixed pro-
portion. So much money for so much work. For twelve hours' weaving,
two shillings. And do not these two shillings represent two shillings worth
of all other commodities ? Thus the laborer has, in fact, exchanged his
own commodity — work, with all kinds of other commodities, and that in a
fixed proportion. His employer in giving him two shillings, has given
him so much meat, so much clothing, so much fuel, light, and so on, in
exchange for his day's work. The two shillings, therefore, express the
proportion in which his work is exchanged with other commodities — the
exchange -value of his work; and the exchange-value of any commodity
expressed in money is called its price. Wage is, therefore, only another
name for the price of work — for the price of this peculiar piece of pro-
perty which can have no local habitation at all except in human flesh and
blood.
" Take the case of any workman, a weaver for instance. The employer
supplies him with thread and loom. The weaver sets to work, and the
thread is turned into cloth. The employer takes possession of the cloth
and sells it, say for twenty shillings. Does the weaver receive as wages a
share in the cloth — in the twenty shillings — in the product of his labor?
By no means. The weaver receives his wages long before the product is
sold. The emj)loyer does not, therefore, pay his wages with the money
he will get for the cloth, but with money previously provided. Loom and
thread are not the weaver's product, since they are supplied by the em-
ployer, and no more are the commodities which he receives in exchange
for his own commodity, or in other words for his work. It is possible
that the employer finds no purchaser for his cloth. It may be that by its
sale he does not recover even the wages he has paid. It may be that in
comparison with the weaver's wages he made a great bargain by its sale. But
all this has nothing whatever to do with the weaver. The employer pur-
chases the weaver's labor with a part of his available property— of his
capital - in exactly the same- way as he has with another part of his pro-
perty bought the raw material — the thread — and the instrument of labor
— the loom. As soon as he has made these jnirchases— and he reckons
among them the ]nirchase of the labor necessary to the production of the
cloth - ho proceeds to produce it by means of the raw material and the
24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
instruments which belong to him. Among these last is, of course, reckon-
ed our worthy weaver, who has as little share in the product, or in the
price of the product, as the loom itself.
" Wages, therefore, are not the worker's share of the commodities
which he has produced. Wages are the share of commodities previously
produced, with which the employer purchases a certain amount of pro-
ductive labor.
" Labor is, therefore, a commodity which its owner, the wage worker,
sells to capital. Why does he sell it ? In order to live.
" But labor is the peculiar expression of the energy of the laborer's
life. And this energy he sells to another party, in order to secure for
himself the means of living. For him, therefore, his energy is nothing but
a means of ensuring his own existence. He works to live. He does not
count the work itself as a part of his life, rather is it a sacrifice of his life.
It is a commodity which he has made over to another party. Neither is.
its product the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is
not the silk he weaves, nor the palace that he builds, nor the gold that he
digs from out the mine. What he produces for himself is his wage; and
silk, gold, and palace are transformed for him into a certain quantity of
means of existence — a cotton shirt, some copper coins, and a lodging in a
cellar. And what of the laborer, who for twelve hours weaves, spins,
bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stones, carries loads, and so on ? I)oe&
his twelve hours' weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building, shoveling,
and stone -breaking represent the active expression of his life ? On the
contrary. Life begins for him exactly where this activity of his ceases
• — at his meals, on the public-house bench, in his bed. His twelve hours'
work has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, boring, etc., but only
as earnings whereby he may obtain his meals, his seat in the public-
house, his bed. If the silkworm's object in spinning were to prolong its
existence as a caterpillar, it would be a perfect example of a wage-
worker.
" Labor was not always a commodity. Labor was not always wage-
work, that is, a marketable commodity The slave does not sell his labor
to the slave-owner. The slave along with his labor is sold once for all to
his owner. He is a commodity which can pass from the hand of one
owner to that of another. He himself is a commodity, but his labor is
not his commodity. The serf sells only a portion of his labor. He does
not receive his wages from the owner of the soil; rather the owner of
the soil receives a tribute from him. The serf belongs to the soil, and to
the lord of the soil he brings its fruits. The free laborer, on the other
hand, sells himself, and that by fractions. From day to day he sells by
auction eight, ten, twelve, fifteen hours of his life to the highest bidder —
to the owner of the raw material, the instruments of work, and the means
of life ; that is, to the employer. The laborer himself belongs neither to an
owner nor to the soil ; but eight, ten, twelve, fifteen hours of his daily life
belong to the man who buys them. The laborer leaves the employer ta
whom he has hired himself whenever he pleases ; and the employer dis-
charges him whenever he thinks fit; either as soon as he ceases to make a
profit out of him, or fails to get so high a profit as he requires. But the
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 25
laborer, whose only source of earnings is the sale of his labor, cannot
leave the whole class of its purchasers, that is, the capitalist class, without
renouncing his own existence. He does not belong to this or that particu-
lar employer, but he does belong to the employing class ; and more than
that, it is his business to find an employer; that is, among this employing
class, it is his business to discover his own particular purchases.
" Before going more closely into the relations between capital and
wage-work, it will be well to give a brief survey of those general relations
which are taken into consideration in determining the amount of wages.
"As we have seen, wages are the price of a certain commodity —
labor. Wages are thus determined by the same law which regulates the
price of any other commodity.
" Thereupon the (question arises, how is the price of a commodity
determined ?
" By what means is the price of a commodity determined f
" By means of competition between buyers and sellers, and the rela-
tion between supply and demand — offer and desire. And this competition
by which the price of an article is fixed is three-fold.
"The same commodity is offered in the market by various sellers.
Whoever offers the greatest advantage to purchasers is certain to drive-
the other sellers off the field, and secure for himself the greatest sale.
The sellers, therefore, fight for the sale and the market among themselves.
Everj^one of them wants to sell, and does his best to sell much, and if pos-
sible to become the only seller. Therefore each outbids the other in
cheapness, and a competition takes place among the sellers which lowers-
the price of the goods they offer.
" But a competition also goes on among the purchasers, which on
their side raises the price of the goods offered.
"Finally there arises a competition between buyers and sellers; the
one set wants to buy as cheap as possible, the other to sell as dear as pos-
sible. The result of this competition between buyers and sellers will de-
pend upon the relations of the two previous aspects of the competition;
that is, upon whether the competition in the ranks of the buyers or that
in those of the sellers is the keener. Business thus leads two opposing
armies into the field, and each of them again presents the aspect of a
battle in its own ranks between its own soldiers. That army whose troops
are least mauled by one another carries off the victory over the opposing^
host.
" Let us suppose that there are a hundred bales of cotton in the mar-
ket, and at the same time buyers in want of a thousand bales. In this
case the demand is greater than the supply. The competition between
the buyers will therefore be intense; each of them will do his best to get
hold of all the hundred bales of cotton. This example is no arbitrary
supposition. In the history of the trade we have experienced periods of
failure of the cotton plant, when particular companies of capitalists have
endeavored to purchase, not only a hundred bales of cotton, but the whole
stock of cotton in the world. Therefore in the case supposed each buyer
will try to beat the others out of the field by offering a proportionately
higher price for the cotton. The cotton -sellers, perceiving the troops of
26 THE PHIHLOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
the hostile host in violent combat with one another, and being perfectly
secure as to the sale of all their hundred bales, will take very good care
not to begin squabbling among themselves in order to depress the price
at the very moment when their adversaries are emulating each other in
the process of screwing it higher up. Peace is therefore suddenly pro-
claimed in the army of the sellers. They present a united front to the
purchaser, and fold their arms in philosophic content; and their claims
would be absolutely boundless if it were not that the offers of even the
most pressing and eager of the buyers miist always have some definite
limit.
''Thus if the supply of a commodity is not so great as the demand for
it, the competition between the buyers waxes. Result: A more or less
important rise in the price of goods.
"As a rule the converse case is of commoner occurrence, producing an
opposite result. Large excess of supply over demand; desperate compe-
tition among the sellers ; dearth of purchasers ; forced sale of goods dirt
cheap.
"But what is the meaning of the rise and fall in prices ? What is the
meaning of higher price or lower price ? A grain of sand is high when
examined through a microscope, and a tower is low when compared with
a mountain. And if price is determined by the relation between supply
and demand, how is the relation between supply and demand itself
determined ?
"Let us turn to the first worthy citizen we meet. He will not take
an instant to consider, but like a second Alexander the Great will cut the
metaphysical knot by the help of his multiplication table. 'If the pro-
duction of the goods which I sell,' he will tell us, 'has cost me £100,
and I get £110 by their sale — within the year, you understand — that's
what I call a sound, honest, reasonable profit. But if I make £120 or
£130 by the sale, that is a higher profit; and if I were to get a good £200,
that would be an exceptional, an enormous profit.' What is it then that
serves our citizen as the measure of his profit ? The cost of production of
his goods. If he receives in exchange for them an amount of other goods
whose production has cost less, he has lost by his bargain. If he receives
an amount whose production has cost more, he has gained. And he
reckons the rise and fall of his profit by the number of degrees at which
it stands with reference to his zero — the cost of production.
"We have now seen how the changing proportion between supply and
demand produces the rise and fall of prices, making them at one time high,
at another low. If through failure in the supply, or exceptional increase
in the demand, an important rise in the price of a commodity takes place,
then the price of another commodity must have fallen; for, of course, the
price of a commodity only expresses in money the proportion in which
other commodities can be exchanged with it. For instance, if the price
of a yard of silk rises from five to six shillings, the price of silver has fal-
len in comparison with silk; and in the same way the price of all other
commodities which remain at their old prices has fallen if compared with
silk. We have to give a larger quantity of them in exchange in order to
obtain the same quantity of silk. And what is the result of a rise in the
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 27
price of a commodity? A mass of cai)ital is thrown into that flourishing
branch of business, and this immigration of capital into the province of
the privileged business will last until the ordinary level of profits is at-
tained; or rather, until the price of the products sinks through overpro-
duction.
"Conversely, if the price of a commodity falls below the cost of its
production, capital will be withdrawn from the production of this com-
modity. Except in the case of a branch of industry which has become
obsolete and is therefore doomed to disappear, the result of this flight of
capital will be that the production of this commodity, and therefore its
supply, will continually dwindle until it corresponds to the demand; and
thus its price rises again to the level of the cost of its production; or
rather, until the supply has fallen below the demand; that is, until its
price has again risen above its cost of production; for the price of any
commodity is always either above or below its cost of production.
"We see then how it is that capital is always immigrating and emi-
grating, from the province of one industry into that of another. It is
high prices that bring about an excessive immigration, and low prices an
excess of emigration.
" We might show from another point of view how not only the sup-
ply, but also the demand is determined by the cost of production; but
this would lead us too far from our present subject.
"We have just seen how the fluctuations of supply and demand
always reduce the price of a commodity to its cost of production. It is
true that the precise price of a commodity is always either above or below
its cost of production; but the rise and fall reciprocally balance each other,
so within a certain period, if the ebb and flow of the business are reckoned
Tip together, commodities are exchanged with one another in accordance
with their cost of production; and thus their cost of production deter-
mines their price.
" The determination of price by cost of production is not to be tmder-
stood in the sense of the economists. The economists declare that the
average price of commodities is equal to the cost of production; this,
according to them, is a law. The anarchical movements in which the rise is
compensated by the fall, and the fall by the rise, they ascribe to chance.
With just as good a right as this, which the other economists assume, we
might consider the fluctuations as the law, and ascribe the fixing of price
by cost of production to chance. But if we look closely, we see that it is
precisely these fluctuations, although they bring the most terrible desola-
tion in their train and shake the fabric of bourgeois society like earth-
quakes, it is precisely these fluctuations which in their course determine
price by cost of production. In the totality of this disorderly movement
is to be foiuid its disorder. Throughout these alternating movements, in
the course of this industrial anai'chy, competition, as it were, cancels one
excess by mean^ of another.
" We gather, therefore, that the price of a commodity is detennined
by its cost, of production, in such manner that the periods in which the
price of this commodity rises above its cost of production are compensated
by the periods in which it sinks below this cost, and conversely. Of course
2S
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
this does not hold good for one single particular product of an industry,
but only for that entire branch of industry. So also it does not hold good
for a particular manufacturer, but only for the entire industrial class.
"The determination of price by cost of production is the same thing
as its determination by the duration of the labor which is required
for the manufacture of a commodity; for cost of production may be
divided into (1) raw material and implements, that is, products of industry
whose manufacture has cost a certain number of days' work, and which
therefore represents a certain duration of labor, and (2) actual labor,
which is measured by its duration.
"Now the same general laws, which universally regulate the j)rice of
commodities, regulate, of course, wages, the price of labor.
"Wages will rise and fall in accordance with the proportion between
demand and supply, that is, in accordance with the conditions of the com-
petition between capitalists as buyers, and laborers as sellers of labor.
The fluctuations of wages correspond in general with the fluctuations in
the price of commodities. Within these fluctuations the price of labor
is regulated by its cost of production, that is, by the duration of labor
which is required in order to produce this commodity, labor.
"Now what is the cost of production of labor itself?
"It is the cost required for the production of a laborer and for his.
maintenance as a laborer.
"The shorter the time requisite for instruction in any labor, the less
is the laborer's cost of production, and the lower are his wages, the price
of his work. In those branches of industries which scarcely require any
period of apprenticeship, and where the mere bodily existence of the
laborer is sufficient, the requisite cost of his production and maintenance
are almost limited to the cost of the commodities which are requisite to
keep him alive. The price of his labor is therefore determined by the
price of the bare necessaries of his existence.
"Here, however, another consideration comes in. The manufacturer^
who reckons up his expenses of production and determines accordingly
the price of the product, takes into account the wear and tear of the
machinery. If a machine costs him £100 and wears itself out in ten years,
he adds £10 a year to the price of his goods, in order to replace the worn-
out machine by a new one when the ten years are up. In the same way
we must reckon in the cost of production of simple labor the cost of its
propagation; so that the race of laborers may be put in a position to
multiply and to replace the worn-out workers by new ones. Thus the
wear and tear of the laborer must be taken into account just as much as
the wear and tear of the machine.
" Thus the cost of production of simple labor amounts to the cost of
the laborer's subsistence and propagation, and the price of this cost
determines his wages. When we speak of wages we mean the minimum
of wages. This minimum of wages holds good, just as does the deter-
mination by the cost of production of the price of commodities in
general, not for the particular individual, but for the species. Individual
laborers, indeed millions of them, do not receive enough to enable them
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 29
to subsist and propagate; but the wages of the whole working class with
all their fluctuations are nicely adjusted to this minimum.
" Now that we are grounded on these general laws which govern
wages just as much as the price of any other commodity, we can examine
our subject more exactly.
" Capital consists of raw material, implements of labor, and all kinds
of means of subsistence, which are used for the production of new imple-
ments and new means of subsistence. All these factors of capital are
created by labor, are products of labor, are stored-up labor. Stored-
up labor which serves as the means of new production is capital."
" So say the economists.
" What is a negro slave ? A human creature of the black race. The
one definition is just as valuable as the other.
" A negro is a negro. In certain conditions he is transformed into a
slave. A spinning- jenny is a machine for spinning cotton. Only in cer-
tain conditions is it transformed into capital. When torn away from these
conditions, it is just as little capital as gold is money in the abstract, or
sugar the price of sugar. In the work of production men do not stand in
relation to nature alone. They only produce when they work together in
a certain way, and mutually exchange their different kinds of energy. In
order to produce, they mutually enter upon certain relations and condi-
tions, and it is only by means of these relations and conditions that their
relation to nature is defined, and production becomes possible.
"These social relations upon which the producers mutually enter,
the terms upon which they exchange their energies and take their share
in the collective act of producticii, will of "course difPer according to the
character of the means of production. With the invention of firearms as
implements of warfare the whole organization of the army was of necessity
altered; and with the alteration in the relations through which individuals
form an army, and are enabled to work together as an army, there was a
simultaneous alteration in the relations of armies to one another.
" Thus with the change in the social relations by means of which
individuals produce, that is, in the social relations of production, and with
the alteration and development of the material means of production, the
powers of production are also transformed. The relations of production
collectively form those social relations which we call a society, and a socie-
ty with definite degrees of historical development, a society with an
appropriate and distinctive character. Ancient society, feudal society, bour-
geois society, are instances of this collective result of the relations of
production, each of which marks out an important step in the historical
development of mankind.
" Now capital also is a social condition of production. It is a bour-
geois condition of production, a condition of the production of a bourgeois
society. Are not the means of subsistence, the implements of labor, and
the raw material, of which capital consists, the results of definite social
relations; were they not produced and stored up under certain social con-
ditions V Will they not be used for fui'ther production under certain
social conditions ? And is it not just this definite social character which
transforms into capital that product which serves for fiuiher production ?
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
"Capital does not consist of means of subsistence, implements of
labor, and raw material alone, nor only of material products; it consists
just as much of exchange-values. All the products of which it consists
are commodities. Thus capital is not merely the sum of material pro-
ducts; it is a sum of commodities, of exchange -values of social quantities.
" Capital remains unchanged if we substitute cotton for wool, rice for
corn, and steamers for railways; provided only that the cotton, the rice,
the steamers — the bodily form of capital — have the same exchange value,
the same price, as the wool, the corn, the railways, in which it formerly
embodied itself. The bodily form of capital may change continually,
while the capital itself undergoes not the slightest alteration.
" But though all capital is a sum of commodities, that is, of exchange
values, it is not every sum of commodities, of exchange values, that is
capital.
" Every sum of exchange values is an exchange value. For instance,
a house worth a thousand pounds is an exchange value of a thousand
pounds. A penny-worth of paper is the sum of the exchange values of a
hundred-hundredths of a penny. Products which may be mutually
exchanged are commodities. The definite proportion in which they are
exchangeable forms their exchange value, or, expressed in money, their
price. The amount of these products can do nothing to alter their defini-
tion as being commodities, or as representing an exchange value, or as
having a cei-tain price. Whether a tree is large or small, it remains a
tree. Whether we exchange iron for other wares in ounces or in hundred-
weights, that makes no difference in its character as a commodity possess-
ing exchange value. According to its amount it is a commodity of more
or less worth, with a higher or lower price.
" How then can a sum of commodities, of exchange values, become cap-
ital?
"By maintaining and multiplying itself as an independent social
power, that is, as the power of a portion of society, by means of its
exchange for direct, living labor. Capital necessarily pre-supposes the
existence of a class which possesses nothing but labor-force.
" It is the lordship of past, stored-up, realized labor over actual, liv-
ing labor that transforms the stored-up labor into capital.
" Capital does not consist in the fact that stored-up labor is used by
living labor as a means to further production. It consists in the fact
that living labor serves as the means whereby stored-up labor may
maintain and multiply its own exchange -value.
" What is it that takes place in the exchange between capital and
wage -work ?
" The laborer receives in exchange for his labor the means of sub-
sistence; but the capitalist receives in exchange for the means of subsist-
ence labor, the productive energy of the laborer, the creative force
whereby the laborer not only replaces what he consumes, but also gives
to the stored-up labor a greater value than it had before. The laborer
receives from the capitalist a share of the previously provided means of
subsistence. To what use does he put these means of subsistence ? He
uses them for immediate consumption. But as soon as I consume my
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 31
means of subsistence, they disappear and are irrecoverably lost to me;
it therefore becomes necessary that I should employ the time during which
these means keep me alive in order to produce new means of subsistence;
so that during their consumption I may provide by my labor new value
in the place of that which thus disappears. But it is just this grand
productive power which the laborer has to bargain away to capital in
exchange for the means of subsistence which he receives. To him there-
fore it is entirely lost.
" Let us take an example. A farmer gives his day-laborer two shill-
ings a day. For this two shillings he works throughout the day on the
farmer's field, and so secures him a return of four shillings. The farmer
does not merely get the value which he had advanced the day-laborer
replaced; he doubles it. He has thus spent or consumed the two shillings
which he gave to the day-laborer in a fruitful and productive fashion.
He has bought for his two shillings just that labor and force of the day-
laborer which produces fruits of the earth of twice the value, and turns
two shillings into four. The day-laborer on the other hand receives in
place of his productive force, which he has just bargained away to the
farmer, two shillings; and these he exchanges for means of subsistence;
which means of subsistence he proceeds with more or less speed to consume.
The two shillings have thus been consumed in double fashion; productively
for capital, since they have been exchanged for the labor-force which
produced the four shillings ; unproductively for the laborer, since they
have been exchanged for means of subsistence which have disappeared for-
ever, and whose value he can only recover by repeating the same bargain
with the farmer. Thus capital pre-supposes wage-labor, and wage-labor
pre-supposes capital. They condition one another; and each bring the
other into play.
"Does a laborer in a cotton factory produce merely cotton? No,
he produces capital. He produces value which serves afresh to command
his own labor, and to create new value by its means.
" Capital can only increase when it is exchanged for labor, when it
calls wage-labor into existence. Wage-labor can only be exchanged for
capital by augmenting capital and strengthening the power whose slave it
is. An increase of capital is therefore an increase of the proletariat, that
is, of the laboring class.
" The interests of the capitalist and the laborer are therefore identi-
cal, assert the bourgeoisie and their economists. And, in fact, so they
are! The laborer perishes if capital does not employ him. Capital per-
ishes if it does not exploit labor; and in order to exploit it, it must buy
it. The faster the capital devoted to production — the productive capital —
increases, and the more successfully the industry is carried on, the richer
do the bourgeoisie become, the better does business go, the mbre labor-
ers does the capitalist require, and the dearer does the laborer sell him-
self.
" Thus the indispensable condition of the laborer's securing a toler-
able position is the speediest possible growth of productive capital.
" But what is the meaning of the increase of ]^roductive capital ? The
increase of the power of stored-up labor over living labor. The increase
*32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
of the dominion of the bourgeoisie over the laboring class. As
fast as wage-labor creates its own antagonist and its own master in the
dominating power of capital, the means of employment, that is, of subsist-
ence, flow back to it from its antagonist ; but only on the condition that it
is itself transformed afresh into a portion of capital, and becomes the lever
whereby the increase of capital may be again hugely accelerated.
"Thus the statement that the interests of capital and labor are iden-
tical comes to mean merely this: capital and wage-labor are the two
terms of one and the same proportion. The one conditions the other, just
in the same way that the usurer and the borrower condition each other
mutually.
"So long as the wage-laborer remains a wage-laborer, his lot in
life is dependent upon capital. That is the exact meaning of the famous
community of interests between capital and labor.
"The increase of capital is attended by an increase in the amount of
wage-labor and in the number of wage-laborers; or, in other words, the
dominion of capital is spread over a larger number of individuals. And,
to give the most fortunate event possible, with the increase of productive
capital there is an increase in the demand for labor. And thus wages,
the price of labor, will rise.
"A house may be large or small; but as long as the surrounding
houses are equally small, it satisfies all social expectations as a dwelling
place. But let a palace arise by the side of this small house, and it
shrinks from a house into a hut. The smallness of the house now gives it
to be understood that its occupant has either very small pretentions or
none at all; and however high it may shoot up with the progress of civili-
zation, if the neighboring palace shoots up also in the same or in greater
proportion, the occupant of the comparatively small house will always
find himself more uncomfortable, more discontented, more confined within
his four walls.
"A notable advance in the amount paid as wages brings about a
rapid increase of productive capital. The rapid increase of jjroductive
capital calls forth just as rapid an increase in wealth, luxury, social wants,
and social comforts. Therefore, although the comforts of the laborer
have risen, the social satisfaction which they give has fallen in comparison
with these augmented comforts of the capitalist which are unattainable
for the laborer, and in comparison with the general development of com-
forts. Our wants and their satisfaction have their origin in society; we
therefore measure them in their relation to society, and not in relation to
the objects which satisfy them. Since their nature is social, it is there-
fore relative.
"As a rule then, wages are not determined merely by the amount of
commodities for which they may be exchanged. They depend upon
various relations.
"What the laborer immediately receives for his labor is a certain
sum of money. Are wages determined merely by this money price ?
"In the sixteenth century the gold and silver in circulation in Europe
was augmented in consequence of the discovery of America. The value of
gold and silver fell, therefore, in proportion to other commodities. The
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 33
laborers received for their labor the same amount of silver coin as
before. The money priqe of their labor remained the same, and yet their
wattes had fallen, for in exchange for the same sum of silver they obtained
a smaller quantity of other commodities. This was one of the circum-
stances which furthered the increase of capital and the rise of the bour-
geoisie in the sixteenth century.
"Let us take another case. In the winter of 1847, in consequence of
a failure in the crops, there was an important increase in the indispensable
means of subsistence, corn, meat, butter, cheese, and so on. We will sup-
pose that the laborers still received the same sum of money for their
labor as before. Had not their wages fallen then ? Of course they had.
For the same amount of money they received in exchange less bread,
meat, etc. ; and their wages had fallen, not because the value of silver had
diminished, but because the value of the means of subsistence had
increased.
"Let us finally suppose that the money price of labor remains the
same, while in consequence of the employment of new machinery, or on
-account of a good season, or for some similar reason, there is a fall in
the price of all agricultural and manufactured goods. For the same
ivmount of money the laborers can now buy more commodities of all
kinds. Their wages have therefore risen, just because their money price
has not changed.
"The money price of labor, the nominal amount of wages, does not
therefore fall together with the real wages, that is, with the amount of
commodities that may practically be obtained in exchange for the wages.
Therefore if we speak of the rise and fall of wages, the money price of
labor, or the nominal wage, is not the only thing which we must keep in
view.
"But neither the nominal wages, that is, the amount of money for
which the laborer sells himself to the employer, nor yet the real wages,
that is, the amount of commodities which he can buy for this money,
exhaust the relations which are Comprehended in the term wages.
"For the meaning of the word is chiefly determined by its relation to
the gain or profit of the employer — it is a proportionate and relative
expression.
"The real wage expresses the price of labor in relation to the price
of other commodities; the relative wage, on the contrary, expresses the
price of direct labor in relation to that of stored-up labor, the relative
value of wage -labor and capital, the proportionate value of capitalist and
laborer.
"Real wages may remain the same, or they may even rise, and yet
the relative wages may none the less have fallen. Let us assume, for
example, that the price of all the means of subsistence has fallen by two-
thirds, while a day's wages have only fallen one-third, as for instance, from
three shillings to two. Although the laborer has a larger amount of
commodities at his disposal for two shillings than he had before at three,
yet his wages are nevertheless diniinished in proportion to the capitalist's
gain. Th© capitalist's profit — the manufacturer's, for instance — has been
augmented by a shilling, since the smaller sum of exchange-value which
^4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
he pays to the laborer, the laborer has to produce a larger sum of
exchange- value than he did before. The value of capital is raised in pro-
portion to the value of labor. The division of social wealth between
capital and labor has become more disproportionate. The capitalist
commands a larger amount of labor with the same amount of capital.
The power of the capitalist class over the laboring class is increased; the
social position (5f the laborer has deteriorated, and is depressed another
degree below that of the capitalist.
"What then is the general law which determines the rise and fall of
wages and profit in their reciprocal relation ?
"They stand in inverse proportion to one another. Capital's
exchange -value, profit, rises in the same proportion in which the exchange-
value of labor, wages, sinks; and conversely. The rise in profit is
exactly measured by the fall in wages, and the fall in profit by the rise
in wages.
"The objection may perhaps be made that the capitalist may have
gained a profit by advantageous exchange of his products with other capi-
talists, or by a rise in the demand for his goods, whether in consequence
of the opening of new markets, or of a greater demand in the old markets;
that the profit of the capitalist may thus increase by means of over-reach-
ing another capitalist, independently of the rise and fall of wages and the
exchange- value of labor; or that the profit of the capitalist may also rise-
through an improvement in the implements of labor, a new application
of natural forces, and so on.
"But it must nevertheless be admitted that the result remains the
same, although it is brought about in a different way. The capitalist has
acquired a larger amount of exchange-value with the same amount of
labor, without having had to pay a higher price for the labor on that
account; th^t is to say, a lower price has been paid for the labor in pro-
portion to the net profit which it yields to the capitalist.
"Besides we must remember that in spite of the fluctuations in the
price of commodities, the average price of each commodity — the propor-
tion in which it exchanges for other commodities — is determined by its
cost of production. The over-reaching and tricks that go on within the
capitalist class therefore necessarily cancel one another. Improvements
in machinery, and new applications of natural forces to the service of pro-
duction, enable them, to turn out in a given time with the same amount of
labor and capital a larger quantity of products, but by no means a larger
quantity of exchange-value, If by the application of the spinning- jenny
I can turn out twice as much thread in an hour as I could before its in-
vention, for instance, a hundred pounds instead of fifty, that is because
the cost of production has been halved, or because at the same cost I can
turn out double the amount of products.
"Finally in whatsoever proportion the capitalist classes — the bour-
geoisie— whether of one country or of the market of the whole world —
share among themselves the net profits of production, the total amount of
these net profits always consists merely of the amount by which, taking aR
in all, direct labor has been increased by means of stored-up labor-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. • 35
This sum total increases, therefore, in the proportion in which labor aug-
ments ca})ital; that is, in the proportion in which profit rises as compared
with wages.
"Thus we see that even if we confine ourselves to the relation between
capital and wage-labor, the interests of capital are in direct antagonism
to the interest of wage-labor.
" A rapid increase of capital is equal to a rapid increase of profits.
Profits can only make a rapid increase, if the exchange- value of labor —
the relative wage — makes an equally rapid decline. The relative wage
may decline, although the actual wage rises along with the nominal wage,
or money price of labor; if only it does not rise in the same proportion
as profit. For instance, if when trade is good, wages rise five per cent.,
and profits on the other hand thirty per cent., then the proportional or
relative wage has not increased but declined.
"Thus if the receipts of the laborer increase with the rapid advance
of capital, yet at the same time there is a widening of the social gulf which,
separates the laborer from the capitalist, and also an increase in the
power of capital over labor and in the dependence of labor upon capital.
"The meaning of the statement that the laborer has an interest in
the rapid increase of capital is merely this; the faster the laborer in-
creases his master's dominion, the richer will be the crumbs that he will
get fi'om his table; and the gieater the number of laborers that can be
employed and called into existence, the greater vdll be the number of
slaves of which capital will be the owner.
" We have thus seen that even the most fortunate event for the work-
ing class, the speediest possible increase of capital, however much it may
improve the material condition of the laborer, cannot abolish the opposi-
tion between his interests and those of the bourgeois or capitalist class.
Profit and wages remain just as much as ever in inverse proportion.
" When capital is increasing fast, wages may rise, but the profit of
capital will rise much faster. The actual position of the laborer has im-
proved, but it is at the expense of his social position. The social gulf
which separates him from the capitalist has widened.
" Finally, the meaning of fortunate conditions for wage-labor, and of
the quickest possible increase of productive capital, is merely this; the
faster the working classes enlarge and extend the hostile power that domi-
nates over them, the better will be the conditions under which they will
be allowed to labor for the further increase of bourgeois dominion and for
the wider extension of the power of capital, and thus contentedly to forge
for themselves the golden chains by which the bourgeois drags them in its
train.
" But are the increase of productive capital and the rise of wages so
indissolubly connected as the bourgeois economists assert? We can
hardly believe that the fatter capital becomes, the more will its slave be
})ampered. The bourgeoisie is too much enlightened, and keeps its
accounts much too carefully, to care for that privilege of the feudal nobil-
ity, the ostentation of splendor in its retinue. The very conditions of
bourgeois existence compel it to keep careful accounts.
36 • THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
" We must therefore inquire more closely into the efPect which the
increase of productive capital has upon wages,
" With the general increase of the productive capital of a bourgeois
society a manifold accumulation of labor-force takes place. The capital-
ists increase in number and in power. The increase in the number of
capitalists increases the competition between capitalists. Their increased
power gives them the means of leading into the industrial battle-field
mightier armies of laborers furnished with gigantic implements of war.
" The one capitalist can only succeed in driving the other off the field
and taking possession of his capital by selling his wares at a cheaper rate.
In order to sell more cheaply without ruining himself, he must produce
more cheaply, that is, he must heighten as much as possible the produc-
tiveness of labor. But the most effective way of making labor more pro-
ductive is by means of a more complete subdivision of labor, or by the
more extended use and continual improvement of machinery. The more
numerous the departments into which labor is divided, and the more
gigantic the scale in which machinery is introduced, in so much the greater
proportion does the cost of production decline, and so much the more
fruitful is the labor. Thus arises a manifold rivalry among capitalists
vv^ith the object of increasing the subdivision of labor and machinery, and
teeping up the utmost possible progressive rate of exploitation.
" Now if by means of a greater subdivision of labor, by the employ-
ment and improvement of new machines, or by the more skillful and pro-
fitable use of the forces of nature, a capitalist has discovered the means
of producing a larger amount of commodities than his competitors with
the same amount of labor; whether it be stored-up labor or direct — if he
-can, for instance, spin a complete yard of cotton in the time that his com-
petitors take to spin half-a-yard — how will this capitalist proceed to act?
\ " He might go on selling half-a-yard at its former market price; but
that would not have the effect of driving his opponents out of the field
and increasing his own sale. ^ But the need of increasing his sale has in-
creased in the same proportion as his production. The more effective and
more expensive means of production which he has called into existence
enable him, of course, to sell his wares cheaper, but they also compel him
to sell more wares and to secure a much larger market for them. Our
•capitalist will therefore proceed to sell his half-a-yard of cotton cheaper
than his competitors.
" The capitalist will not, however, sell his complete yard so cheaply
as his competitors sell the half, although its entire production does not
€ost him more than the production of half costs the others. For in that
case he would gain nothing, but would only get back the cost of its pro-
duction. The contingent increase in his receipts would result from his
having set in motion a larger capital, but not from having made his capi-
tal more profitable than that of the others. Besides he gains the end he
is aiming at, if he prices his goods a slight percentage lower than his
competitors. He drives them off the field, and wi'ests from them at any
rate a portion of their sale, if only he undersells them. And finally we
must remember that the price current always stands either above or be-
low the cost of production, according as the sale of a commodity is trans-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 37
acted at a favorable or unfavorable period of business. According as the
market price of a yard of cloth is above or below its former cost of pro-
duction, the percentage will alter in which the capitalist who has employed
the new and profitable means of production exceeds in its sale the
actual cost of its production to him.
" But our capitalist does not find his privilege very lasting. Other
rival capitalists introduce with more or less rapidity the same machines
and the same subdivision of labor; and this introduction becomes general,
until the price of the yard of cloth is reduced not only below its old, but
below its new cost of production.
" Thus the capitalists find themselves relatively in the same position
in which they stood before the introduction of the new means of produc-
tion; and if they are by these means enabled to ofPer twice the product
for the same price, they now find themselves compelled to offer the
doubled amount for less than the old price. From the standpoint of these
new means of production the old game begins anew. There is greater
subdivision of labor, more machinery, and a more rapid progress in the
exploitation of both. Whereupon competition brings about the same
reaction against this result.
" Thus we see how the manner and means of production are continu-
ally renewed and revolutionised; and how the division of labor necessarily
brings in its train a greater division of labor; the introduction of machin-
ery, a still larger introduction; and the rapidity of progress in the effi-
ciency of labor, a still greater rapidity of progress.
" That is the law which continually drives bourgeois production out
of its old track, and compels capital to intensify the productive powers of
labor for the very reason that it has already intensified them — the law
that allows it no rest, but for ever whispers in its ear the words, ' Quick
March!'
'' This is no other law than that which, cancelling the periodical fluc-
tuations of business, necessarily identifies the price of a commodity with its
cost of production.
" However powerful are the means of production which a particular
capitalist may bring into the field, competition will make their adoption
general; and the moment it becomes general, the sole result of the greater
fruitfulness of his capital is that he must now for the same price offer ten,
twenty, a hundred times as much as before. But as he must dispose of
perhaps a thousand times as much, in order to outweigh the decrease in
the selling price by the larger proportion of products sold; since a larger
sale has now become necessary, not only to gain a larger profit, but also to
replace the cost of production ; and the implements of production, as we
have seen, always get more exj^ensive; and since this larger sale has become
a vital question, not only for him, but also for his rivals, the old strife con-
tinues with all the greater violence, in proportion as the previously dis-
covered means of production are more fruitfiil. Thus the subdivision of
labor and the employment of new machinery take a fresh start, and i)ro-
ceed with still greater rapidity. -
"And thus, whatever be the power of the means of ]:>roduction
employed, competition does its best to rob capital of the golden fruit which it
38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
produces, by reducing the price of commodities to their cost of production;
and, as fast as their production is cheapened, compeUing by a despotic
law the larger supply of cheaper products to be offered at the former
price. Thus the capitalist will have won nothing by his exertions beyond
the obligation to produce faster than before, and an enhancement of the
difficulty of employing his capital to advantage. While competition con-
tinually persecutes him with its law of the cost of production, and turns
against himself every weapon which he forges against his rivals; the capi-
talist continually tries to cheat competition by incessantly introducing
further subdivision of labor, and replacing the old machines by new ones,
which, though more expensive, produce more cheaply; instead of waiting
till competition has rendered them obsolete.
" Let us now look at this feverish agitation as it affects the market of
the whole world, and we shall understand how the increase, accumulation,
and concentration of capital bring in their train an uninterrupted and
extreme subdivision of labor, always advancing with gigantic strides of pro-
gress, and a continual employment of new machinery together with
improvement of the old.
" But how do these circumstances, inseparable as they are from the
increase of productive capital, affect the determination of the amount of
wages ?
" The greater division of labor enables one laborer to do the work of
■five, ten, twenty; it therefore multiplies the competition among laborers five,
ten or twenty times. The laborers do not only compete when one sells
himself cheaper than another; they also compete when one does the work
of five, ten or twenty; and the division of labor which capital introduces and
continually increases, compels the laborers to enter into this kind of com-
petition with one another.
"Further; in the same proportion in which the division of labor is
increased, the labor itself is simplified. The special skill of the laborer
becomes worthless. ' It is changed into a monotonous and uniform power
production, which can give play neither to bodily nor to intellectual elas-
ticity. Its labor becomes accessible to everybody. Competitors therefofe
throng into it from all sides; and besides we must remember that the more
simply and easily learnt the labor is, and the less it costs a man to make
himself master of it, so much the lower must its wages sink; since they
are determined, like the price of every other commodity, by its cost of
production.
"Therefore exactly as the labor becomes more unsatisfactory and
unpleasant, in that very proportion competition increases and wages
decline. The laborer does his best to maintain the rate of his wages by
performing more labor, whether by working for a greater number of hours,
or by working harder in the same time. Thus, driven by necessity, he
himself increases the evil of the subdivision of labor. So the result is
this; the more he labors, the less reward he receives for it; and that for
this simple reason — that he competes against his fellow-workmen, and thus
compels them to compete against him, and to offer their labor on as
wretched conditions as he does; and that he thus in the last result com-
petes against himself as a member of the working class.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 39
" Machinery has the same effect, but in a much greater degree. It
supplants skilled laborers by unskilled, men by women, adults by chil-
dren; where it is newly introduced, it throws the hand-laborers upon the
streets in crowds ; and where it is perfected or replaced by latter improve-
ments and more inventions, discards.them by slightly slower degrees. We
have sketched above in hasty outlines the industral war of capitalists with
one another ; and the war has this peculiarty, that its battles are won less
by means of enlisting than of discharging its industrial recruits. The
generals or capitalists vie with one another as to who can dispense with
the greatest number of his soldiers.
" The economists repeatedly assure us that the laborers who are ren-
dered superfluous by the machines find new branches of employment.
*' They have not the hardihood directly to assert that the laborers
who are discharged enter upon the new branches of labor. The facts
cry out too loud against such a lie as this. They only declare that for
other divisions of the laboring class, as for instance, for the rising gener-
ation of laborers who were just ready to enter upon the defunct branch
of industry, new means of employment will open out. Of course that is a
oreat satisfaction for the dismissed laborers. The worshipful capitalists
will not find their fresh supply of exploitable flesh and blood run short,
and will let the dead bury their dead. This is indeed a consolation with
which the bourgeois comfort themselves rather than the laborers. If the
whole class of wage-laborers were annihilated by the machines, how
shocking that would be for capital, which without wage-labor ceases to
act as capital at all.
" But let us suppose that those who are directly driven out of their
employment by machinery, and also all those of the rising generation who
were expecting employment in the same line, find some new employment.
Does any one imagine that this will be as highly paid as that which they
have lost ? Such an idea would be in direct contradiction to all the laws
of economy. We have already seen that the modem form of industry
always tends to the displacement of the more complex and the higher kinds
of employment, by those which are more simple and subordinate.
" How then could a crowd of laborers, who are thrown out of one
branch of industry by machinery, find refuge in another, without having
to content themselves with a lower position and worse pay ?
"The laborers who are employed in the manufacture of machinery
itself have been instanced as an exception. As soon as a desire arises and
a demand begins in an industry for more machinery, it is said that there
must necessarily be an increase in the number of machines, and therefore
in the manufacture of machines, and therefore in the employment of
laborers in this manufacture; and the laborers who are employed in
this branch of industry will be skilled, and indeed even educated laborers.
" Ever since the year 1840 this contention, which even before that time
was only half true, has lost all its specious color. For the machine which
are employed in the manufacture of machinery have been quite as numerous
as those used in the manufacture of cotton; and the laborers who are
employed in producing machines, instead of bieing highly educated, have
•only been able to play the part of utterly unskilled machines themselves.
40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
•'But in the place of the man who has been dismissed by the machine
perhaps three children and one woman are employed to work it. And was
it not necessary before that the man's wages should suffice for the support
of his wife and his children ? Was not the minimum of wages necessarily
sufficient for the maintenance and propagation of the race of laborers ?
There is no difference, except that now the lives of four times as many
laborers as before are used up in order to secure the support of one
laborer's family.
"To repeat our deductions; the faster productive capital increases,
the more does the division of labor and the employment of machinery
extend. The more the division of labor and the employment of machin-
ery extend, so much the more does competition increase among the labor-
ers, and so much the more do their average wages dwindle.
" And besides, the laboring class is recruited from the higher strata
of society; or else there falls headlong into it a crowd of small manufact-
urers and small proprietors, who thenceforth have nothing better to do
than to stretch out their arms by the side of those of the laborers. And
thus the forest of arms outstretched by those who are entreating for work
becomes ever denser and the arms themselves grow ever leaner.
" That the small manufacturer cannot survive in a contest, whose first
condition is production on a continually increasing scale, that is, that he
cannot be at once both a large and a small manufacturer, is self-evident.
" That the interest on capital declines in the same proportion as the
amount of capital increases and extends, and that therefore the small capi-
talist can no longer live on his interest, but must join the ranks of the
workers and increase the number of the proletariat, — all this requires no
further exemplification.
" Finally, in the proportion in which the capitalists are compelled by
the causes here sketched out to exploit on an ever increasing scale yet
more gigantic means of production, and with this object to set in motion
all the mainsprings of credit, in this same proportion is there an increase
of those earthquakes wherein the business world can only secure its own
existence by the sacrifice of a portion of its wealth, its products, and even
its powers of production to the gods of the world below— in a word, crises
increase. They become at once more frequent and more violent; because
in the same proportion in which the amount of production, and therefore
the demand for an extension of the market, increases, the market of the
world continually contracts, and ever fewer markets remain to be exploited;
since every previous crisis has added to the commerce of the world a
market which was not known before, or had been only superficially
exploited by commerce. But capital not only lives upon labor. Like a
lord, at once distinguished and barbarous, it drags with it to the grave
the corpses of its slaves and whole hecatombs of laborers who perish in
the crisis. Thus we see that if capital increases fast, competition among the
laborers increases still faster, that is, the means of employment and sub-
sistence decline in proportion at a still more rapid rate; and yet, none the
less, the most fortunate conditions for wage-labor lie in the speedy
increase of capital."
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM. 41
CHAPTER V.
Capitalism. — Origin of the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
In February, 1848, the now historical " Communist Manifesto ""
appeared in London, England. It was translated into all the European lan-
guages and spread broadcast by the workingmen's societies of those
countries. An extract from it is here given as follows:
" From the serfs of the middle ages sprang the burgesses of the early
Communes; and from this municipal class were developed the firs{ elements
of the bourgeoisie. The discovery of America, the circumnavigation of
Africa, gave the bourgeoisie or middle class — then coming into being —
new and wider fields of action. The colonization of America, the opening
up of the East Indian and Chinese markets, the colonial trade, the increase
of merchandise and of cuiTency, gave an impetus — hitherto unknown — to-
commerce, shipping and manufactures, and aided the rapid development
of the revolutionary element in the old decaying form of feudal society.
"The old feudal way of managing the industrial interests through
guilds was found no longer sufficient for the increasing demands of new
markets. It was replaced by the manufacturing system. Guilds gave
way to the industrial middle class, and the division of labor between the
different corporations was succeeded by the division of labor between the
workmen of one and the same workshop.
"New markets multiplied; the demand still increased. The manu-
facturing system in its turn was found to be inadequate. Then industrial
production was revolutionized by machinery and steam. The modem
industrial system was then developed in all its gigantic proportions; instead
of the industrial middle-class we find industrial millionaires, chiefs of
whole industrial armies — the modern bourgeoisie, or middle-class capital-
ists. This system of modem industry founded a world-wide market, which
the discovery of America had prepared, and thereby an immense develop-
ment was given to commerce, and to the means of communication by sea,
and land. This again reacted upon the industrial system, and in the
same degree that industry, trade, shipping and railroads have increased,
so have the bourgeoisie developed and increased their capital, and at the
same time have driven to the wall all classes then remaining from feudal
times.
"We find, therefore, that the modem bourgeoisie are themselves the
result of a long process of development, of a series of revolutions in the
modes of production and exchange. Each of these stages in the evolution
of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by corresponding progress. It was an
oppressed class under the old feudal barons ; in the mediaeval commimes it
assumed the form of armed and self governing associations; in one county
we find it existing as a commercial republic or fi-ee city ; in another, as the
third taxablo f'stfitn of the monarchy; then during the prevalence of the
42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
manufacturing system (before the introduction of steam) the middle-class
was a counterpoise to the nobility in absolute monarchies, and the ground-
work of the powerful monarchial states generally. Finally, since the ad-
vent of the modern industrial system, witK its world-wide markets, this
class has gained exclusive possession of political power in modem repre-
sentative states. Modern governments are merely committees for manag-
ing the afPairs of industry in the interest of the bourgeoisie.
"The bourgeoisie have played an extremely revolutionary role in
society!
"The bourgeoisie have destroyed all feudal, patriarchal and idylic
relations wherever they have come into power. They relentlessly tore
asunder the many-sided ties of that chain which bound men to their 'nat-
ural superiors,' and they left no bond of union between man and man,
save that of bare self-interest — of cash payments. They resolved personal
dignity into market value, and substituted the single unprincipled idea of
freedom of trade for the numerous, well-earned, chartered liberties of the
middle ages. Chivalrous enthusiasm, the emotions of piety, and all prin-
ciples of personal honor have vanished before the icy breath of their selfish
calculations. In a word, the bourgeoisie substituted shameless, direct
open spoliation, for the previous system of spoliation concealed under
religious and political illusions.
"The bourgeoisie divested of their sanctity all institutions heretofore
regarded with pious veneration. They converted the physician, the jurist,
the priest, the poet, the philosopher, into their paid tools and servants.
"The bourgeoisie have torn the tender veil of sentiment away from
domestic ties and reduced the family relations to a mere question of dol-
lars and cents.
"The bourgeoisie have demonstrated how the brutal force of the mid-
dle ages, which is so much admired by reactionists, has found its most
befitting fulfilment to-day in the laziest ruffianism. They have also shown
what human activity is capable of accomplishing. They have executed
work more marvelous than Egyptian Pyramids, Koman Acqueducts, or
Gothic Cathedrals; and their expeditions have surpassed by far all former
crusades and migrations of nations.
"The bourgeoisie cannot exist, without continually revolutionizing
machinery and the instruments of production, and consequently changing
all our social institutions. Persistence in the established modes of j^ro-
duction was, on the contrary, in former years, the first condition of exist-
ence for all other industrial classes. A continual change in the modes of
production, a never ceasing state of agitation and social insecurity, distin-
guish the bourgeois epoch from all preceding ones. The ancient ties
between men — their opinions and belief, hoary with antiquity — are fast
disappearing, and new ones become worn out ere they become firmly
rooted. Everything fixed and stable vanishes ; everything holy and vener-
able is profaned; and men are forced to look at their mutual relations, at
the problem of life, in the soberest, most matter-of-fact manner.
"The need of an ever increasing market for their produce drives the
bourgeoisie all over the entire globe — they found settlements, form con-
nections and set up means of communication everywhere. Through their
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 43
control of the world's markets they have given a cosmopolitan tendency to
the production and consumption of all countries. To the great regret of
the reactionists the bourgeoisie have deprived modem industry of its
national foundation. The old national manufactures have been in some
cases annihilated and are still being destroyed. They are superseded by
new modes of industry, the introduction of which is becoming a vital ques-
tion for all civilized nations, where raw materials are not indigenous, but
are brought from the remotest countries; and whose products are not
merely consumed in the home market, but throughout the the whole world.
Instead of the old primitive wants, supplied only by home production,
we now find new wants supplied by the products of the most distant lands
and climes. Instead of the old local, national feeling of independence
and isolation, we find universal intercourse and inter- dependence among
nations. The same fact obtains in the intellectual world! The intel-
lectual productions of each nation become the common property of all
nations. National partiality and prejudice are fast becoming impossible
and a universal literature is being formed from the numerous local and
national literatures.
"Through incessant improvements in machinery and the means of
communication, the bourgeoisie draw the most barbarous nations into the
magic circle of civilization. Cheap goods are their artillery for battering
down Chinese walls and to overcome the obstinate hatred entertained
towards strangers by semi-civilized nations. Under penalty of ruin, the
bourgeoisie compel by competition the universal adoption of their system
of production; they force all nations to accept what is called civilization —
to become bourgeois — and thus the middle class shapes the world after its
own image.
" The bourgeoisie have subjected the rural districts to the ascendancy
of the town; they have created enormous cities, and by causing an
immense increase of population in manufacturing districts, compared with
agricultural, have removed a greater part of the population from the sim-
plicity of country life. Not only have they made the country subordinate
to the town, they have also made barbarous and half civilized tribes
dependent on civilized nations, the agricultural on the manufacturing
nations, the East on the West. The division of property, of the means of
production disappear under the rule of the bourgeoisie. They agglomer-
ate population, they centralize the means of production, and concentrate
property in the hands of the few. Political centralization is the natural
result. Independent provinces, with different interests, each affected by
separate customs and under separate local government are brought together
as one nation, under the same government, the same laws, customs, and
tariff-sunder the same national class interest.
" The rule of the bourgeoisie has only prevailed for about a century,
but during that time it has called into being greater gigantic powers of
production than all preceding generations combined. The subjection of
the elements of nature, the development of machinery, the application of
chemistry to agriculture and manufactures, railways, telegraphs, steam-
ships, the clearing and cultivation of whole continents, the canalizing of
44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
rivers, — large populations, whole industrial armies, springing up as if by
magic. What preceding century ever even dreamed of these productive
powers slumbering in the bosom of society ?
" We have seen that these means of production and traffic which
serve as the foundation of middle class development, originated in feudal
times. At a certain stage in the evolution of these means, the conditions
under which feudal society produced and exchanged — the feudal system
of agriculture and industry — in a word the feudal conditions of property
no longer sufficed for the increased productive powers of mankind. These
conditions then became a hindrance to production; instead of an assistance^
they were so many fetters which had to be broken and they were broken.
" They were superseded by unrestricted competition with its appropri-
ate social and political constitutions, with the economic and political
supremacy of the middle class. At the present moment a similar move-
ment is going on. Modern middle class society which has revolutionized
the conditions of property and called forth such coUossal powers of pro-
duction and exchange, resembles the wizard who loses control of the infer-
nal powers he has conjured. The history of manufactures and commerce
has been for many years the history of the revolts of the modern powers
of production against the modern conditions of production — against the
very conditions of property which are vital to the existence and supremacy
of the middle class. It is sufficient to refer to the panics or commercial
crises, which in their periodical recurrence, more and more endanger the
existence of the middle class. In such a crisis is not only a larger quan-
tity of social products destroyed, but also a large portion of the produc-
tive power itself.
" During such panics a social epidemic breaks forth, which in all
former epochs whould have appeared a paradox — the epidemic of over-
production. Society finds itself suddenly thrown back into momentary
barbarism; famine or devastating war seem to have deprived it of the
means of subsistence, — industry and trade appear destroyed. And is it
because society possesses too much civilization, too much sustenance, too
much industry, too much trade ? The powers of production at the dispo-
sal of society, no longer serve to advance the middle class ownership of
property; on the contrary they have become too powerful for these condi-
tions; they are hampered by them and whenever these obstructions are
overcome, they throw all middle class society into confusion and imperil
the existence of middle class property. The social system of the middle
class has become too narrow to hold the wealth it has called into being.
How does the middle class try to withstand these panics ? On the one
hand by destroying masses of productive power, on the other hand by the
conquest of new markets and by exhausting the old ones more thoroughly.
That is they prepare the way for still more universal and dangerous pan-
ics and reduce the means of withstanding them.
" The weapons with which the middle class overthrew feudalism are
now turned against itself. The middle class not only has forged the
weapons for its own destiTiction, it has also produced the men who will
wield these weapons — the modern workmen, the proletariat.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 45
" In the same degree in whicli the bourgeoisie and capital have
developed, so the proletariat has developed. And this is the class that
live only when it can find work, and it finds work only as long as its toil
will increase caj^ital. These workers who must sell themselves piecemeal
to the highest bidder, like all other articles of commerce, are equally
exposed to all the variations of competition and to all the fluctuations of
the market.
*■' Through the extension of machinery and the division of work, daily
labor has lost all its independent character and all attraction for the work-
ingman. He becomes merely an appendage to a machine, and only the
simplest, most monotonous, and most easily learnt operation is demanded.
The expenses of the workingman, are therefore almost entirely limited to
the means of subsistence required for his support and for the propagation
of his race.
" The price of a commodity, likewise of labor, is measured by its cost
of production. In the same degree that the repulsiveness of labor
increases, wages decrease. Still further in proportion as machinery and
division of labor increase, the burdens of labor increase either through
increase of the hours of labor, or in the quantity of work required in a
given time, or through increased speed of machinery, etc.
" Modem industry has transformed the small workshop of the artisan
into the larger factory of the capitalist. Masses of operatives crowded
together in factories are organized on a military basis. They are placed
as common soldiers, under the superintendence of a complete hierarchy of
officers and subalterns. They are not alone slaves of the middle class, of
the government; but they are also daily and hourly the slaves of the
machine, the foreman, and above all the individual employer. This des-
potism is all the more hateful, contemptible and aggravating since it
openly proclaims that gain is its only object and aim.
" The less skill and exertion of force manual labor requires, the more
modern industry develops; the more the labor of men is displaced by that
of women. Neither sex' nor age have any social existence for the work-
ing class. They are merely so many instruments costing different sums
according to age or sex.
" When the plundering of the workingman by the manufacturer has
ceased in so far that he has been paid his cash wages, then step in the
other portions of the middle class to prey upon the worker, viz : the land-
lord, storekeeper, pawnbroker, etc.
" The small middle class, the artisans, merchants, mechanics, shop-
keepers, and farmers, are all doomed to fall into the ranks of the prole-
tariat, because their small capital can not compete with that of the mill-
ionaire, and partly because their skill is depreciated by new modes of pro-
duction. Thus the proletariat recruits from all classes of population.
" The proletariat has passed through many phases of development,
but its struggle with the bourgeoisie dates from its birth. At first the
struggle is waged by individual workingmen, then by the workingmen of
one factory, next by the workingmen of an entire trade in the same local-
ity against an individual employer who directly despoils them. They
attack not only the capitalistic conditions of production, but even the
46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
instruments of production ; they destroy competing merchandise from for-
eign countries, they break machines, burn factories and seek to regain the
position of the workers in the middle ages. At this stage the workers
form a disorganized mass scattered all over the country divided by com-
petition. A more compact union then comes, not so much the effect of
their own development, as it is the consequence of the organization of the
bourgeoisie. This class requires and does set in motion the whole work-
ing class for the furtherance of its own political interests. And thus the
working class do not fight their own enemies, but rather the enemies of
their masters, such as absolute monarchy wherever it exists, the land-
owners, the non- employing capitalists, the shopkeepers; the benefits of
every such movement are thus concentrated in the hands of the bourgeo-
isie, who are opposed to these classes; every victory thus gained is won
for them.
" With the development of industry not only does the proletariat
increase, it also concentrates into greater masses and learns its own
strength and power. The interests and conditions of different trades are
more and more equalized, because machinery destroys more and more the
difference in labor and reduces wages to the same low level generally.
The increasing competition of the bourgeoisie among themselves and the
commercial panics resulting therefrom make the wages of workingmen
more uncertain; the continual and rapid improvement in machinery makes
their conditions in life more precarious. The collisions between individual
workingmen and individual masters assume more and more the character
of outbreaks between the two classes. The workingmen form coalitions
against the masters, they unite in trade unions to maintain their wages.
They form permanent associations for mutual aid and to prepare for these
occasional outbreaks. And at times the struggle assumes the form
of riots. From time to time the workingmen are victorious, but only
momentarily. The actual result of their struggle is not immediate suc-
cess, but leads to ever increasing combination among workingmen. Their
unions are favored by the ever growing facility of communication, fostered
by modern industry, whereby the workingmen of the remotest districts are
placed in closer connection. All that is required is a closer union to cen-
tralize the many local struggles of the same character into one grand
national struggle, into a class revolt. Every class struggle is a political
one. The combination, which took the burghers of the middle ages with
their common highways centuries to accomplish, can be now established
in a few years by the modern working class, through the aid of railroads.
" This organization of the workingmen into a class and thereby into
a political party is often destroyed by the competition of workingmen
among themselves. Yet the organization of labor always reappears, and
each time stronger, firmer and more extensive. It enforces the legal rec-
ognition of some particular interest of the workingmen, profiting by dis-
sensions among the bourgeoisie — as in the case of the ten-hour law in
England. The dissensions of the ruling class among themselves are favor-
able in many respects to the advancement of the proletariat. The bour-
geoisie have always been in a state of perpetual warfare, first against the
aristocracy, then against that part of its own class whose interests are
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM. 47
opposed to the further development of industry, and thirdly against the
bourgeoisie of other countries. In all these struggles it is obliged to
appeal to the working class, to invoke their help, and so the working class
is drawn into political movements. It therefore places in the hatids of
the proletariat its own means of advancement — and furnishes the weapons,
against itself.
" As we have already seen, the evolution of industry throws a large
part of the ruling class into the ranks of the proletariat, or at least rend-
ers their condition in life more precarious. Thus a mass of enlightened
elements are driven into the ranks of the working class.
" Finally, as the settlement of this class struggle nears an end, then
the process of dissolution goes on so rapidly within the ruling class — within
the worn out body politic — that a small fi'action of this class separates
from the bourgeoisie and unites with the revolutionary class — ^that class
which holds the future in its own hands.
"As in former times, a part of the nobility joined the bourgeoisie, so
now a part of the bourgeoisie joins the proletariat, and particularly that
part of the bourgeoisie who have attained a theoretical and historical
knowledge of the whole movement.
" The working class is the only true revolutionary class among all the
enemies of the bourgeoisie to-day. The remaining classes are degenerat-
ing; destroyed by modern industry. The proletariat is its only product!
"The middle class, the artisans, the shopkeepers, mechanics and
farmers, all oppose the bourgeoisie in order to defend their position as
small capitalists. They are not revolutionary, but conservative. Yea
more — ^they are reactionary, they seek to turn backward the wheels of
history. When they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their
impending absorption by the proletariat, hence they do not defend their
present but their futui'e interests; they abandon their own position in
order to take up that of the proletariat.
" The vagabond proletariat — the rowdies and bummers — that passive
rot of the lowest strata of modem society, will be partially drawn into this
movement but from its peculiar social status will be ever found a ready
and venal tool for reactionaiy intrigues.
" The conditions of existence for modem society are already destroyed
through the conditions imposed upon the working class. The working-
man has no property; the relation in which he stands to his family has noth-
ing in common with the bourgois family relation. Modem industrial labor,
the modem slavery of labor to capital, the same in England as in France,
in America as in Germany, has divested him of all national character.
Law, morality, religion are for him only so much middle class prejudice,
behind which are concealed so many middle class interests.
" All dominant classes in the past have sought to preserve the position
they attained, by subjecting society to the conditions which gave those
classes their possessions. The proletarians can gain control of the produc-
tive powers of society — of the instruments of labor — only by annihilating
all acknowledged modes of spoliation by which they have been plundered,
and with it the entire system of spoliation and robbery. The proletar-
48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
ians have nothing of their own to protect, they must destroy all existing
capitalistic security and capitalistic guaranties.
" All previous movements were movements of minorities or in the
interest of minorities. The labor movement is an independent movement
of the immense majority in behalf of the immense majority. The prole-
tariat, the lowest strata of existing society, cannot arise without disrupting
the entire superstiTicture of classes above it, and that hold it down.
" Although the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie is
not national in its nature, yet it is so in form. The proletariat of each
country must naturally first settle accounts with the bourgeoisie of that
country.
" We have thus sketched the general aspect presented by the devel-
opment of the proletariat, and at the same time followed the more or less
concealed civil war pervading modem society up to that point, where
it must break forth into open revolution, and then the proletariat will arrive
at supremacy through the forcible downfall of the bourgeoisie.
"All previous forms of society rested as we have seen, upon the
antagonisms of oppressing and oppressed classes. But, in order to oppress
a class, the conditions must be secured under which it can at least continue
its slavish existence. The serf in the middle ages found it possible to
become a member of the commune. The burghers could enter the middle
class even under the yoke of feudal monarchy. The modern workingman
on the contrary, instead of improving his condition with the progree^s of
industry, is daily sinking lower and lower, even below the conditions of
existence for his own class. The workingman is becoming a pauper, and
pauperism develops even more rapidily than population and wealth. This
clearly proves that the bourgeoisie is incapable of holding its position any
longer as the ruling class. It can no longer force upon society its conditions
as the rule of action. It is unable to rule because it is unable even to
secure the existence of its slaves in their slavery, as it lets them sink into
a lot where it must nourish them, instead of being nourished by them.
Society can not longer exist under this class, as the existence of this class
is no longer compatible with that of society.
"The most important condition for the existence and supremacy of
the bourgeoisie, is accumulation of wealth in the hands of private individ-
uals ; the formation and increase of capital.
" The condition upon which capital depends is wages-labor. Wages-
labor rests exclusively on the competition of the workingmen among them-
selves. The progress of industry, tends to supersede the isolated action
of the workingmen by the revolutionary union of their class, and to replace
competition by association. With the development of modern industry
therefore the basis on which the bourgeoisie manages production and appro-
priates the products of labor is drawn from under its feet. Thus the
bourgeoisie produces its own grave. Its downfall and the victory of the
proletariat are alike unavoidable."
" But occult theft, theft which hides itseK, even from itseK, and is legal, respectable, and cow-
ardly, corrupts the body and soul of man to the last fibre of them. And the guilty thieves of
Europe, the real sources of all deadly war in it, are the capitalists— that is to say, people who live by
perc^ntiages on the labor of others, instead of by fair wages for their own. Tlie real war in Europe,
of which this fighting in Paris is the inauguration, is between these and the workman, such as these
have made him. They have kept him poor, ignorant and simple, that they might, without his
knowledge, gather for themselves tl^e produce of his toil. At last a dim insight into the fact of this
dawns on him, and as they liave made him, he meets them, and will meet. — Extract from John Rus-
kirCs letters to workmen and laborers (Fobs Clavigeba) upon the Paris Commune of 1871.
PAI^T II.
CHAPTER I.
ANARCHY ON TRIAL.
"Black says they are humanitarians. Don't try, gentlemen, to shirk the
issue. Anarchy is on trial ; the defendants are on trial for treason and murder."
Mr. Black — The indictment does not charge treason; does it, Mr. Grinnell?
Mr. Grinnell — No, sir. — Extract from closing speech of the Staters Attorney.
Not until this announcement, in the closing words of the last speech
by the attorney representing the State^ were the eight defendants apprised,
ofl&cially, or otherwise, that the question at issue was anarchy; for profess-
ing which, a verdict of death was then demanded.
This announcement was all the more startling from the fact that fre-
quent attacks had been made upon them as socialists and anarchists
throughout the trial; and the defendants had demanded of their counsel
the privilege of introducing witnesses, to explain to the judge, and the
country, what was the meaning and purpose of the doctrine of which they
were disciples, if not the apostles in America; and for entertaining which
they were informed the death sentence was now invoked, not, however,
until a few moments before the case was given to the jury.
IVIr. Foster, who came into the case, with some local reputation in the
State of his former residence as a criminal lawyer, persisted in trying the
same, as one purely of homicide; to be determined upon the plain issue of
law and facts pertaining to the alleged killing (as charged in the indict-
ment) of one Matthias J. Degan.
He scouted the idea that either the court or jury would try the politi-
cal opinions of the defendants; as a criminal issue to be adjudged worthy
of death as social heretics. Mr. Foster's idea, however, prevailed, though
not without opposition from Capt. Black, who was overruled by the
majority.
In the words of a Wisconsm, Eaij Claire, correspondent to a leading
Chicago journal:
"Midway in the trial, while this question was still unsettled, there
came a message from Chicago to Eau Claire summoniag a well-known citi-
zen of this city to appear at a conclave of the Chicago anarchists. The
distinguished citizen was no other than Alderman Charles L. James, a
person who, during a residence of over twenty years in this community,
has V)een generally known as an ^ advanced type of anarchistic socialism;
that he had laid the literatures of several languages under contribution to
furnish food for his theorizing, and, finally, that besides being a scholar
52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
himself J he was the youngest son of no less a scholar and litterateur than
George P. B. James, the historiographer of William IV, the author of a
whole library of romances — no other, indeed, than the ' Solitary Horse-
man.'
"Mr. James was one of the victims of that exclusive policy of Mr.
Foster which choked the explanation of the propaganda. He came back
from Chicago wearing a disappointment in his heart for that he was not
allowed to speak. This disappointment, however, he shortly assuaged by
addressing a communication embodying what he would have said, to the
North American Review. The discriminating editor of that periodical
published the letter in his July number, of which the following is an
extract, and which is here given, because it is an embodyment of what
would have been, and should have been, presented to the jury and the
country, on the trial by Mr. James :
"'Anarchy from an Anarchist's Standpoint. — Competition among cap-
italists is continually reducing the price of commodities to the cost of pro-
duction. This necessitates increasingly minute subdivision of labor,
destroying that technical skill which made the old-fashioned shoemaker or
blacksmith independent; degradiiig the laborers into portions of the
machine they operate; stimulating the competition for employment which
prevails among them; increasing the frequency of those periods when
they are thrown out of work and reduced from comfort to beggary, and of
course contributing to increase the revolutionary discontent of edu-
cated men, nui'tured in hope and enjoyment, who see themselves hopelessly
distanced by those whom they can in no way regard as their superiors.
The chasm which threatens to engulf our social system is still further
widened by the destruction of small capitalists in the battle of competition
and the growth of great monopolies, advancing pari passu with the pau-
perization of the laboring class. The miseries and dangers thus engendered
by the very nature of modern trade and industry are greatly aggravated
by the periodical gorging of the market with goods ])roduced in excess of
the demand during seasons of speculation, and the consequent forced
migration of capital to other branches by the dreary road along which lie
bankruptcy, stagnation, reduced consumption, reduced production, slow
liquidation, and that gradual revival of business which closes a financial
crisis. The critical character of these periodical revulsions is greatly
aggravated by the fluctuations of that uncertain currency which speculative
business has everywhere introduced. It has so far been palliated by the
extension of the market into new countries — America, India, Egypt,
China, etc. But when this process reaches an end and one commercial
system extends over the world, then, if not sooner, prices will actually fall
to the cost of production, and the catastrophe of production for profit will
be reached. Anarchy, therefore, according to anarchists, is the inevitable
end of the present drift and tendency of things. Trimmers may devise
means to jnit it off; Napoleons and Bismarcks may, for a time, stifle it in
blood, but the longer it is deferred the more violent will be the reaction
which brings it in at last. That only is wise statesmanship which gives
up moribund institutions to die. That only is reform which anticipates
in a less painful manner the work of revolution.'
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 53
Dyer D. Lum, C. S. Griffin, Mrs. Lucy E. Parsons, Mrs. Holmes, Mrs.
Ames, A. W. Simpson, John A. Henry, William Holmes, and many other
well-known anarchists, including the eight prisoners at the bar, requested
repeatedly throughout the trial permission to exj)lain and define to the
court and jury the speculative philosophy known as anarchism, but were
always told by the lawyers for the defense that it was entirely unnesh.ary,
since their belief in the doctrines of "anarchy" was not ui)on trial. That
anarchy really was on trial was made known when it was too late to
explain or define it. At the close of the trial the prosecution sprung a
new case upon the defendants, a charge which was not in the indictment,
and against which these defendants were not permitted to defend them-
selves.
In their closing speeches the prosecution declared: "Law is upon
trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by
the grand jury and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more
guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; con-
vict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our insti-
tutions, our society."
It is mainly, if not wholly, on account of the declarations made by
the prosecution in the paragraph quoted above that the author has written
and compiled this work, to wit: that not being permitted to defend or
explain the belief we entertained; that having been condemned unheard
for social heresy, — the world which is our final judge and to which we
appeal, may know, as it has a right to know, in what our offense consisted-
CHAPTER II.
VIEWS OF THE PRISONERS.
Following are extracts from the speeches of the eight Chicago anarch-
ists, relating to anarchy, made by them in reply to the question of the
court why sentence should not be pronounced; including also other extracts
from their writings:
August Spies on Anarchy.
* * * " From their testimony one is forced to conclude that we
had, in our sj)eech^s and publications, preached nothing else but destruc-
tion and dynamite. The court has this morning stated that there is no
case in history like this. I have noticed, during this trial, that the gentle-
men of the legal ])rofession are not well versed in history. In all histori-
cal cases of this kind truth had to be perverted by the priests of the estab-
lished power that was nearing its end.
"What have we said in our speeches and publications?
"We have interpreted to the people their conditions and relations in
society. We have explained to them the different social phenomena and
54 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
the social laws and circmnstances under which they occur. We have, by
way of scientific investigation, incontrovertibly proved and brought to their
knowledge that the system of wages is the root of the present social
iniquities — iniquities so monstrous that they cry to Heaven. We have
further said that the wage system, as a specific form of social develop-
ment, would, by the necessity of logic, have to make room for higher forms
of civilization; that the wage system must prepare the way and furnish
the foundation for a social system of co-operation — that is, socialism.
That whether this or that theory, this or that scheme regarding future
arrangements were accepted was not a matter of choice, but one of histori-
cal necessity, and that to us the tendency of progress seemed to be
anarchism — that is, a free society without kings or classes — a society of
sovereigns in which the liberty and economic equality of all would furnish
an unshakable equilibrium as a foundation and condition of natural order.
"It is not likely that the honorable Bonfield and Grinnell can conceive
of a social order not held intact by the policeman's club and pistol, nor
of a free society without prisons, gallows, and State's attorneys. In such
a society they probably fail to find a place for themselves. And is this
the reason why anarchism is such a * pernicious and damnable doctrine?'
" Grinnell has intimated to us that anarchism was on trial. The theory
of anarchism belongs to the realm of speculative philosophy. There was
not a syllable said about anarchism at the Haymarket meeting. At that
meeting the very popular theme of reducing the hours of toil was dis-
cussed. But, 'anarchism is on trial' foams Mr. Grinnell. If that is the
case, your honor, very well; you may sentence me, for I am an anarchist.
I believe with Buckle, with Paine, Jefferson, Emerson, and Spencer, and
many other great thinkers of this century, that the state of castes and
classes — the stale where one class dominates over and lives upon the labor
of another class, and calls this order — yes; I believe that this barbaric
form of social organization, with its legalized plunder and murder, is
doomed to die, and make room for a free society, voluntary association, or
universal brotherhood, if you like. You may pronounce the sentence upon
me, honorable judge, but let the world know that in A. D. 1886, in the
State of Illinois, eight men were sentenced to death because they believed
in a better future ; because they had not lost their faith in the ultimate
Tictory of liberty and justice ! 'You have taught the destruction of society
and civilization,' says the tool and agent of the Bankers' and Citizens'
Association, Grinnell. That man has yet to learn what civilization is. It
is the old, old argument against human progress. Read the history of
Greece, of Home; read that of Venice; look over the dark pages of the
church, and follow the thorny path, of science. 'No change! No change!
You would destroy society and civilization!' has ever been the cry of the
ruling classes. They are so comfortably situated under the prevailing sys-
tem that they naturally abhor and fear even the slightest change. Their
privileges are as dear to them as life itself, and eveiy change threatens
these privileges. But civilization is a ladder whose steps are monuments
of such changes ! Without these social changes — all brought about against
the will and the force of the ruling classes — there would be no civiliza-
tion. As to the destruction of society which we have been accused of seek-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 55
lug, soiinds this not like one of ^sop's fables — like the cunning of the fox ?
We, who have jeopardized our lives to save society from the fiend — the
fiend who has grasped her by the throat; who sucks her life-blood, who
devours her children — we, who would heal her bleeding wounds, who
would free her from the fetters you have wrought around her; from the
misery you have brought upon her — we her enemies!!
"Honorable judge, the demons of hell will join in the laughter this
irony provokes!
"We have preached dynamite. Yes, we have predicted from the les-
sons history teaches, that the ruling classes of to-day would no more listen
to the voice of reason than their predecessors; that they would attempt
by brute force to stay the wheel of progress. Is it a lie, or was it the
truTh we told ? Are not already the large industries of this once free coun-
try conducted under the surveilance of the police, the detective, the military
and the sheriffs — and is this return to militancy not developing from day to
day. American sovereigns — think of it — working like the galley convicts
under military guards! We have predicted this, and predict that soon
these conditions will grow unbearable. What then ? The mandate of the
feudal lords of our time is slavery, starvation and death! This has been
their programme for the past years. We have said to the toilers, that
science had penetrated the mystery of nature — that from Jove's head once
more has sprung a Minerva — dynamite! If this declaration is synony-
mous with murder, why not charge those with the crime to whom we owe
the invention ? To charge us with an attempt to overthrow the present
system on or about May 4th by force, and then establish anarchy, is t Jo
absurd a statement, I think, even for a political office-holder to make. If
Grinnell belived that we attempted such a thing, why did he not have Dr.
Bluthardt make an inquiiy as to our sanity ? Only mad men could have
planned such a brilliant scheme, and mad people cannot be indicted or
convicted of murder. If there had existed anything like a conspiracy or
a pre-arragement, does your honor believe that events would not have
taken a different course than they did on that evening and later ? This
'conspiracy' nonsense is based upon an oration I delivered on the anni-
versary of Washington's birthday at Grand Rapids, Mich., more than a
year and a half ago. I had been invited by the Knights of Labor for that
purpose. I dwelt upon the fact that our country was far fi-om being what
the great revolutionists of the last century had intended it to be. I said
that those men if they lived to-day would clean the Augean stables with
iron brooms, and that they, too, would undoubtedly be characterized as
' wild socialists.' It is not unlikely that I said Washington would have been
hanged for treason if the revolution had failed. Grinnell made this
'sacreligious remark' his main arrow against me. Why? Because he
intended to inveigh the know-nothing spirit against us. But who will deny
the correctness of the statement ? That I should have compared myself
with Washington, is a base lie. But if I had, would that be murder ? I
may have told that individual who appeared here as a witness that the
workingmen should procure arms,' as force would in all probability be the
ultima ratio ; and that in Chicago there were so and so many armed, but
J[ certainly did not say that we proposed to 'inaugurate the social revolu-
56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAHCHISM.
tion.' And let me say here: Revolutions are no more made than earth-
quakes and cyclones. Revolutions are the effect of certain causes and
conditions. I have made social philosophy a specific study for more than
ten years, and I could not have given vent to such nonsense! I do believe^
however, that the revolution is n^ar at hand — in fact, that it is upon us.
But is the physician responsible for the death of the patient because he
foretold that death ? If any one is to be blamed for the coming revolution
it is the ruling class who steadily refused to make concessions as reforms-
became necessary; who maintain that they can call a halt to progress, and
dictate a stand- still to the enternal forces, of which they themselves are
but the whimsical creation.
" The position generally taken in this case is that we are morally
responsible for the police riot on May 4th. Four or five years ago Tsat
in this very court room as a witness. The workingmen had been trying
to obtain redress in a lawful manner. They had voted, and among others,
had elected their aldermanic candidate from the fourteenth ward. But the
street car company did not like that man. And two of the three election
judges of one precinct, knowing this, took the ballot box to their home
and ' corrected ' the election returns, so as to cheat the constituents of
the elected candidate of their rightful representative, and give the repre-
sentation to the benevolent street car monopoly. The workingmen spent
$1,500 in the prosecution of the perpetrators of this crime. The proof
against them was so overwhelming that they confessed to having falsified
the returns and forged the official documents. Judge Gardner, who was
presiding in this court, acquitted them, stating that ' that act had appar-
ently not been prompted by criminal intent.' I will make no comment.
But when we approach the field of moral responsibility, it has an immense
scope! Every man who has in the past assisted in thwarting the
efforts of those seeking reform is responsible for the existence of the revo-
lutionists in this city to-day! Those, however, who have sought to bring-
about reforms must be exempted from the responsibility — and to these /
belong.
" If the verdict is based upon the assumption of moral responsibility,.
your honor, I give this as a reason why sentence should not be passed.
*' If the opinion of the court given this morning is good law, then
there is no person in this country who could not lawfully be hanged. I
vouch that, upon the very laws you have read, there is no person in this
courtroom now who could not be 'fairly, impartially and lawfully'
hanged! Fouche, Napoleon's right bower, once said to his master: ' Give
me a line that any one man has ever written, and I will bring him to the
scaffold.' And this court has done essentially the same. Upon that law
every person in this country can be indicted for conspiracy, and, as the case-
may be, for murder. Every member of a trade union. Knights of Labor,
or any other labor organization, can then be convicted of conspiracy,
and in cases of violence, for which they may not be responsible at all, of
murder, as we have been. This precedent once established, and you force-
the masses who are now agitating in a peaceable way into open rebellion 1
You thereby shut oft* the last safety valve — and the blood which will h&
shed, the blood of the innocent — it will come upon your heads!
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM. 57
" Seven policemen have died,' said Grinnell, suggestively winking at
the jury. You want a life for a life, and have convicted an equal num-
ber of men, of whom it cannot be truthfully said that they had anything
whatsoever to do with the killing of Bonfield's victims. The very same
principle of jurisprudence we find ahaong various savage tribes. Injuries
among them are equalized, so to speak. The Chinooks and the Arabs,
for instance, would demand the life of an enemy for every death that
they had suffered at their enemy's hands. They were not particular in
regard to the persons, just so long as they had a life for a life. This
principle also prevails to-day among the natives of the Sandwich Islands.
If we are to be hanged on this principle then let us know it, and let the
world know what a civilized and christian country it is, in which the
Goulds, the Vanderbilts, the Stanf ords, the Fields, Armours, and other
local money hamsters have come to the rescue of liberty and justice!
" Grinnell has repeatedly stated that our country is an enlightened
country, {sarcastically.) The verdict fully corroborates the assertion!
This verdict against us is the anathema of the wealthy classes over their
despoiled victims — the vast army of wage workers and farmers. If your
honor would not have these people believe this ; if you would not have them
believe that we have once more arrived at the Spartan Senate, the Athenian
Areopagus, the Venetian Council of Ten, etc., then sentence should not be
pronounced. But, if you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out
the labor movement — the movement from which the downtrodden millions,
the millions who toil and live in want and misery — the wage slaves —
expect salvation — if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will
tread upon a spark, but there, and there; and behind you, and in front of
you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You
cannot put it out.
" The ground is on fire upon which you stand. You can't under-
stand it. You don't believe in magical arts, as your grandfathers did wha
burned witches at the stake, but you do believe in conspiracies; you believe
that all these occurrences of late are the work of conspirators ! You resem-
ble the child that is looking for his picture behind the mirror. What you.
see, and what you try to grasp is nothing but the deceptive reflex of the
stings of your bad conscience. You want to ' stamp out the conspirators' —
the ' agitators ?' Ah, stamp out every factory lord who has grown wealthy
upon the unpaid labor for his employes. Stamp out every landlord who
has amassed fortunes fi'om the rent of over-burdened workingmen and
farmers. Stamp out every machine that is revolutionizing industry and
agriculture, that intensifies the production and ruins the producer, thai
increases the national wealth, while the creator of all these things stands
amidst them, tantalized with hunger! Stamp out the railroads, the tele-
graph, the telephone, steam and yourselves — for everything breathes the
revolutionary spirit.
"You, gentlemen, are the revolutionists! You rebel against the-
effects of social conditions which have tossed you, by the fair hand of for-
tune, into a magnificent paradise. Without inquiring, you imagine that
no one else has a right in that place. You insist that you are the chosen,
ones, the sole proprietors. The forces that tossed you into the paradise,,
:58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
the industral forces, are still at work. They are growing more active and
intense from day to day. Their tendency is to elevate all mankind to the
same level, to have all humanity share in the paradise you now monopo-
lize. You, in your blindness, think you can stop the tidal wave of civili-
zation, and human emancipation by placing a few policemen, a few gat-
ling guns, and some regiments of militia on the shore — you think you can
frighten the rising waves back into the unfathomable depths, whence they
have risen, by erecting a few gallows in the perspective. You, who
■oppose the natural course of things, you are the real revolutionists. You
and you alone are the conspirators and destructionists !
" Said the court yesterday, in referring to the board of trade demon-
stration: 'These men started out with the express purpose of sacking
tne board of trade building.' While I can't see what sense there would
have been in such an undertaking, and while I know that the said demons-
tration was arranged simply as a means of propaganda against the system
that legalizes the respectable business carried on there, I will assume that
the three thousand workingmen who marched in that procession really
intended to sack the building. In this case they would have differed from
the respectable board of trade men only in this — that they sought to
recover property in an unlawful way, while the others sack the entire
country lawfully and unlawfully — ^this being their respectable profession.
This court of "justice and equity" proclaims the principle that when two
persons do the same thing, it is not the same thing. I thank the court
for this confession. It contains all that we have taught, and for which we
are to be hanged, in a nut shell ! Theft is a felony when resorted to in
self preservation by the other class. Eapine and pillage are the order of
a certain class of gentlemen who find this mode of earning a livelihood
easier and preferable to honest labor — this is the kind of order we have
attempted, and are now trying, and will try as long as we live to do away
with. Look on the economic battle fields. Behold the carnage and plun-
der of the christian patricians ! Accompany me to the quarters of the
wealth-creators in this city. Go with me to the half-starved miners of
the Hocking Valley. Look at the pariahs in the Monongahela Valley, and
many other mining districts in this country, or pass along the railroads of
that great and most orderly and law-abiding citizen. Jay Gould. And
tell me whether this order has in it any moral principle for which it should
be preserved. I say that the preservation of such an order is criminal,
is murderous. It means the preservation of the systematic destruction of
children and women in factories. It means the preservation of enforced
idleness of large armies of men and their degradation. It means the pre-
servation of misery, want, and servility on one hand, and the dangerous
accumulation of spoils, idleness, voluptuousness and tyranny on the other.
It means the preservation of vice in every form.
" And last but not least, it means the preservation of the class strug-
gle of strikes, riots and bloodshed. That is your 'order,' gentlemen;
jes, and it is worthy of you to be the champions of such an order. You
are eminently fitted for that role. You have my compliments !
" Grinnell spoke of Victor Hugo. I need not repeat what he said,
but will answer him in the language of one of our German philosphers :
THE PHILOSOPHY OF .VNAECHISM. 59
* Our bourgeoisie erect monuments in honor of the memory of the classics.
If they had read them they would burn them !' Why, amongst the arti-
cles read here from the Arheiter-Zeitung, put in evidence by the State, by
-which they intend to convince the jury of the dangerous character of the
accused anarchists, is an extract from Goethe's Faust.
' Es erben sich Gesetz und Rechte,
We eine ew'ge Krankheit fort,' etc.
('Law and class privileges are transmitted like an hereditary disease.')
And IVIr. Ingham in his speech told the christian jurors that our comrades,
the Paris communists, had in 1871, dethroned God, the Almighty, and had
put up in his place a low prostitute. The effect was marvelous ! The
good christians were shocked.
" I wish your honor would inform the learned gentlemen that the
-episode related occurred in Paris nearly a century ago, and that the sacri-
legious perpetrators were the cotemporaries of the founders of the Repub-
lic— and among them was Thomas Paine. Nor was the woman a prosti-
tute, but a good citoyenne de Paris, who served on that occasion simply
as an allegory of the goddess of reason.
" Referring to Most's letter, read here, Mr. Ingham said: * They,'
meaning Most and myself, ' They might have destroyed thousands of
innocent lives in the Hocking Valley with that dynamite.' I have said
all I know about the letter on the witness stand, but will add that two
years ago I went through the Hocking Valley as a correspondent. While
there I saw hundreds of lives in the process of slow destruction, gradual
destruction. There was no dynamite, nor were they Anarchists who did
that diabolical work. It was the work of a party of highly respectable
monopolists, law-abiding citizens, if you please. It is needless to say the
murderers were never indicted. The press had little to say, and the State
of Ohio assisted them. What a terror it would have created if the victims
of this diabolical plot had resented and blown some of those respectable
cut-throats to atoms. When, in East St. Louis, Jay Gould's hirelings,
' the men of grit,' shot down in cold blood and killed six inoffensive
workingmen and women, there was very little said, and the grand jury
refused to indict the gentlemen. It was the same way in Chicago, Mil-
waukee and other places. A Chicago furniture manufacturer shot down
and seriously wounded two striking workingmen last spring. He was
held over to the grand jury. The grand jury refused to indict the gen-
tleman.
" But when, on one occasion, a workingman in self defense resisted
the murderous attempt of the police and threw a bomb, and for once blood
flowed on the other side, then a terrific howl went up from the land;
' Conspiracy has attacked vested rights !' And eight victims are demanded
for it. There has been much said about the public sentiment. There
has been much said about the public clamor. Why, it is a fact, that no
citizen dared express another opinion than that prescribed by the author-
ities of the State, for if one had' done otherwise, he would have been
locked up; he might have been sent to the gallows to swing, as they will
60 THE PHIHLOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
have tlie pleasure of doing with us, if the decree of our ' honorable court'
is consummated.
"'These men,' Grinnell said repeatedly, ' have no principles ; they
are common murderers, assassins, robbers,' etc. I admit that our aspira-
tions and objects are incomprehensible to unprincipled ruffians, but surely
for this we are not to be blamed. The assertion, if I mistake not, was
based on the ground that we sought to destroy property. Whether this
perversion of fact was intentional, I know not. But in justification of our
doctrines I will say that the assertion is an infamous falsehood. Articles
have been read here from the Arheiter-Zeitung and Alarm to show the
dangerous characters of the defendants. The files of the Arheiter-Zeitung
and Alarm have been searched for the past years. Those articles which
"generally commented upon some atrocity committed by the authorities
upon striking workingmen were picked out and read to you. Other arti-
cles were not read to the court. Other articles were not what was wanted.
The State's Attorney upon those articles (who well knows that he tells a
falsehood when he says it), asserts that 'these men have no principle.'
" A few weeks before I was arrested and charged with the crime Jor
which I have been convicted, I was invited by the clergymen of the Con-
gregational Church to lecture upon the subject of socialism, and debate
with them. This took place at the Grand Pacific Hotel. And so that it
cannot be said that after I have been arrested, after I have been indicted,
and after I have been convicted, I have put together some principles to
justify my action, I will read what I said then —
" Capt. Black: *Give the date of the paper.'
"Me. Spies: 'January 9, 1886.'
"Capt. Black: 'What paper, the Alarm f
"Mr. Spies: 'The Alarm. When I was asked upon that occasion
what socialism was, I said this :
•'Socialism is simply a resume of the phenomena of the social life of
the past and present traced to their fundamental causes, and brought into
logical connection with one another. It rests upon the established fact
that the economic conditions and institutions of a people form the ground
work of all their social conditions, of their ideas — aye, even of their relig-
ion, and further, that all changes of economic conditions, every step in
advance, arises from the struggles between the dominating and dominated
class in difPerent ages. You, gentlemen, cannot place yourselves at this
standpoint of speculative science; your profession demands that you
occupy the opposite position, that which professes acquaintance with things
as they actually exist, but which presumes a thorough understanding of
matters which to ordinary mortals are entirely incomprehensible. It is-
for this reason that you cannot become Socialists (cries of 'Oh! oh!').
Lest you should be unable to exactly grasp my meaning, however, I will
now state the matter a little more plainly. It cannot be unknown to you
that in the course of this century there have appeared an infinite number
of inventions and discoveries, which have brought about great, aye,
astonishing changes in the production of the necessities and comforts of life.
The work of machines has to a great extent, replaced that of men.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 61
"Machinery involves a great accumulation of power, and always a
greater division of labor in consequence.
"The advantages resulting from this centralization of production
were of such a nature as to cause its still further extension, and from this
concentration of the means of labor and of the operations of laborers,
while the old system of distribution was (and is) retained, arose those
improper conditions which ails society to-day.
"The means of production thus came into the hands of an ever decreas-
ing number, while the actual producers, through the introduction of
machinery, deprived of the opportunity to toil, and being at the same
time disinherited of the bounties of nature, were consigned to pauperism,
vagabondage — the so-called crime and prostitution— all these evils which
you gentlemen would like to exorcise with your little prayer-book.
"The socialists award your efforts a jocular rather than a serious
attention — [symptoms of uneasiness] — otherwise, pray let us know how
much you have accomplished so far by your moral lecturing toward
ameliorating the condition of those wretched beings who through bitter
want have been driven to crime and desperation ? [Here several gentle-
men sprang to their feet, exclaiming, 'We have done a great deal in some
directions!'] Aye, in some cases you have perhaps given a few alms; but
what influence has this, if I may ask, had upon societary conditions, or
in affecting any change in the same ? Nothing ; absolutely nothing.
You may as well admit it, gentlemen, for you cannot point me out a single
instance.
"Very well. Those proletarians doomed to misery and hunger
through the labor-saving of our centralizd^d production, whose number
in this country we estimate at about a million and a half, is it likely that
they and the thousands who are daily joining their ranks, and the mill-
ions who are toiling for a miserable pittance, will suffer peacefully and
with christian resignation their destruction at the hand of their theivish
and murderous, albeit very christian wage-masters? They jvill defend
themselves. It will come to a fight.
"The necessity of common ownership in the means of toil will be
realized, and the era of socialism, of universal co-operation begins. The
dispossesssing of the usurping classes — the socialization of these posses-
sions— and the universal co-operation of toil, not for speculative pur-
poses, but for the satisfaction of the demands which we make upon life;
in short co-operati^ labor for the purpose of continuing life and of
enjoying it — this in general outlines, is socialism. This is not, however,
as you might suppose, a mere 'beautifully conceived plan,' the realization
of which would be well worth striving for if it could only be brought
about. No; this socialization of the means of production, of the machin-
ery of commerce, of the land and earth, etc., is not only something desir-
able, but has become an imperative necessity, and where ever we find in
history that something has once become a necessity there we always find
that the next step was the doing away with that necessity' by the supply-
ing of the logical want.
"Our large factories and mines, and the machinery of exchange and
transportation, apart from every other consideration, have become too
62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
vast for private control. Individuals can no longer monopolize them.
"Everywhere, wherever we cast our eyes, we find forced upon our
attention the unnatural and injurious effects of unregulated private pro-
duction. We see how one man, or a number of men, have not only^
brought into the embrace of their private ownership a few inventions in
technical lines, but have also confiscated for their exclusive advantage^
all natural powers, such as water, steam, and electricity. Every fresh,
invention, every discovery belongs to them. The world exists for them
only. That they destroy their fellow-beings right and left they little
care. That, by their machinery, they even work the bodies of little
children into gold pieces they hold to be an especially good work and a
genuine christian act. They murder, as we have said, little children
and women by hard labor, while they let strong men go hungry for lack
of work.
"People ask themselves how such things are possible, and the answer
is that the competitive system is the cause of it. The thought of a-
co-operative, social, rational, and well-regulated system of management
irresistibly impresses the observer. The advantages of such a system
are of such a convincing kind, so patent to observation — and where could
there be any other way out of it ? According to physical laws a body
always moves itself, consciously or unconsciously, along the line of least
resistance. So does society as a whole. The path to co-operative labor
and distribution is leveled by the concentration of the means of labor
under the private capitalistic system. We are already moving right in
that track. We cannot retre?^ even if we would. The force of circum-
stances drives us on to socialism.
'"And now, Mr. S., won't you tell us how you are going to carry
out the expropriation of the possessing classes 't ' asked Rev. Dr. Scudder.
'"The answer is in the thing itself. The key is furnished by the
storms raging through the industrial life of the present. You see how
penuriously the owners of the factories, of the mines, cling to their
privileges, and will not yield the breadth of an inch. On the other
hand, you see the half -starved proletarians driven to the verge of violence.^
"'So your remedy would be violence?'
"'Remedy? Well, I should like it better if it could be done without
violence, but you, gentlemen, and the class you represent, take care that
it cannot be accomplished otherwise. Let us suppose that the working-
men to-day go to their employers, and say to them: 'Listen! Your
administration of affairs don't suit us any more; it leads to disastrous-
consequences. While one part of us are worked to death, the others out
of employment, are starved to death; little children are ground to death
in the factories, while strong, vigorous men remain idle; the masses live
in misery while a small class of respectables enjoy luxury and wealth;
all this is the result of your maladministration, which will bring misfor-
tune even to yourselves ; step down and out now ; let us have your prop-
erty, jvhich is nothing but unpaid labor; we shall take this thing in our
hands now; we shall administrate matters satisfactorily, and regulate the
institutions of society; voluntarily we shall pay you a life-long pension.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM. 65
Now, do you think the 'bosses' would accept this proposition? You
certainly don't believe it. Therefore force will have to decide — or do you.
know of any any other way ?
" 'So you are organizing a revolution ?'
"It was shortly before my arrest, and I answered: 'Such things are^
hard to organize. A revolution is a sudden up welling — a convulsion of
the fevered masses of society.
"We are preparing society for that, and insist upon it that working-
men should arm themselves and keep ready for the struggle. The better
they are armed the easier will the battle be, and the less the bloodshed.
" ' What would be the order of things in the new society ?'
"'I must decline to answer this question, as it is, till now, a mere^
matter of speculation. The organization of labor on a co-operative basis
offers no difficulties. The large establishments of to-day might be used
as patterns. Those who will have to solve these questions will expedi-
ently do it, instead of working according to our prescriptions (if we should
make anything of the kind) ; they will be directed by the circumstances and
conditions of the time, and these are beyond our liorizon. About this you.
needn't trouble yourselves.'
'"But, friend, don't you think that about a week after the division,
the provident will have all, while the spendthrift will have nothing?'
"'The question is out of order,' interfered the chairman; 'there was
not anything said about division.'
"Prof. Wilcox: 'Don't you think the introduction of socialism will
destroy all inviduality ?'
"'How can anything be destroyed which does not exist? In our
times there is no individuality; that only can be developed under social-
ism, when mankind will be independent economically. Where do you
meet to-day with real individuality ? Look at yourselves, gentlemen ! You
don't dare to give utterance to any subjective opinion which might not
suit the feeling of your bread-givers and customers. You are hypocrites
[murmurs of indignation]; every business man is a hypocrite. Every-
where is mockery, servility, lies and fraud. And the laborers ! There you
feign anxiety about their individuality; about the individuality of a class
that has been degraded to machines — used each day for ten or twelve
hours as appendages of the lifeless machines! About their individuality
you are anxious!'
"Does that sound as though I had at that time, as has been imputed
to me, organized a revolution — a so-called social revolution, which was to
occur on or a})out the 1 st of May to establish anarchy in place of our pres-
ent ' ideal order ?' I guess not.
"So socialism does not mean the destruction of society. Socialism is-
a constructive and not a destructive science. While capitalism expropri-
ates the masses for the benefit of the privileged class; while capitalism is
that school of economics which teaches how one can live upon the labor
(i. e., property) of the other; socialism teaches how all may possess prop-
erty, and further teaches that every man must work honestly for his own
living, and not be playing the 'respectable board of trade man,' or any
other highly ( ?) respectable business man or banker, such as appeared here
64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
as talesman in iilie jurors' box, with the fixed opinion that we ought to be
hanged. Indeed, I believe they have that opinion! Socialism, in short,
seeks to establish a universal system of co-operation, and to render acces-
sible to each and every member of the human family the achievements and
benefits of civilization, which, under capitalism, are being monopolized by
a privileged class and employed, not as they should be, for the common
good of all, but for the brutish gratification of an avaricious class. Under
capitalism the great inventions of the past, far from being a blessing for
mankind, have been turned into a curse! Under socialism the prophecy
of the Greek poet, Antiporas, would be fulfilled, who, at the invention of
the first water-mill, exclaimed: 'This is the emancipator of male and
female slaves'; and likewise the prediction of Aristotle, who said: 'When,
at some future age, every tool, upon command or by predestination, will
perform its work as the art- works of Dsedalus did, which moved by them-
selves ; or like the three feet of Hephaestus, which went to their sacred
work instinctively, when thus the weaver shuttles will weave by themselves,
then we shall no longer require masters and slaves.' Socialism says this
time has come, and can you deny it? You say: 'Oh, these heathens, what
did they know ?' True! They knew nething of political economy; they
knew nothing of Christendom. They failed to conceive how nicely these
man- emancipating machines could be employed to lengthen the hours of
toil and to intensify the burdens of the slaves. These heathens, yes, they
excused the slavery of one on the ground that thereby another would be
afforded the opportunity of human development. But to preach the
slavery of the masses in order that a few rude and arrogant parvenues
might become 'eminent manufacturers,' 'extensive packing-house owners,'
or 'influential shoe-black dealers,' to do this they lacked that specific
Christian organ.
"Socialism teaches that the machines, the means of transportation and
■communipation are the result of the combined efforts of society, past and
present, and that they are therefore rightfully the indivisible property of
society, just the same as the soil and the mines and all natural gifts should
be. This declaration implies that those who have appropriated this wealth
wrongfully, though lawfully, shall be expropriated by society. The expro-
priation of the masses by the monopolists has reached such a degree that
the expropriation of the expropriateurs has become an imperative nesessity,
an act of social self-preservation. Society will reclaim its own, even
though you erect a gibbet on every street corner. And anarchism, this
terrible 'ism,' deduces that under a co-oj)erative organization of society,
under economic equality and individual independence, the 'State'- — the
political State — will pass into barbaric antiquity. And we will be where
all are free, where there are no longer masters and servants, where intel-
lect stands for brute force, there will no longer be any use for the police-
men and militia to preserve the so-called 'peace and order' — the order
that the Bussian general spoke of when he telegraped to the Czar after he
had massacred half of Warsaw, 'Peace reigns in Warsaw.'
"Anarchism does not mean bloodshed; does not mean robbery, arson,
etc. These monstrosities are, on the contrary, the characteristic features
of capitalism. Anarchism means peace and tranquility to all. Anarchism,
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
65
or socialism, means the reorganization of society upon scientific principles
and the abolition of causes which produce vice and crime. Capitalism
first produces these social diseases and then seeks to cure them by pun-
ishment.
" Your honor has said this morning, ' we must learn their objects from
what they have said and written,' and in pursuance thereof the court has
read a number of articles.
" Now, if I had as much power as the court, and were a law-abiding
citizen, I would certainly have the court indicted for some remarks made
during this trial. I will say that if I had not been an anarchist at the
beginning of this trial I would be one now. I quote the exact language
of the court on one occasion. ' It does not necessarily follow that all laws
are foolish and bad because a good many of them are so.' That is trea-
son, sir! if we are to believe the court and the state's attorney. But, aside
from that, I cannot see how we shall distinguish the good from the bad
laws. Am I to judge of that? No; I am not. But if I disobey a bad
law, and am brought before a bad judge, I undoubtedly would be convicted.
" In regard to a report in the Arbeiter-Zeitung, also read this morn-
ing, the report of the Board of Trade demonstration, I would say — and
this is the only defense, the only word I have to say in my own defense,
that I did not know of that article until I saw it in the paper, and the
man who wrote it, wrote it rather as a reply to some slurs in the morning
papers. He was discharged. The language used in that article would
never have been tolerated if I had seen it.
'* Now, if we cannot be directly implicated with this affair, connected
with the throwing of the bomb, where is the law that says, ' that these
men shall be picked out to suffer ?' Show me that law if you have it. If
the position of the court is correct, then half of this city — half of the
population of this city — ought to be hanged, because they are responsible
the same as we are for that act on May 4th. And if not half of the popu-
lation of Chicago is hanged, then show me the law that says, * eight men
shall be picked out and hanged as scapegoats!' You have no such law.
Your decision, your verdict, our conviction is nothing but an arbitrary will
of this lawless court. It is true there is no precedent in jurisprudence in
this case. It is true we have called upon the people to arm themselves.
It is true that we have told them time and again that the great day of
change was coming. It was not our desire to have bloodshed. We ai'e
not beasts. We would not be socialists if were beasts. It is because of
our sensitiveness that we have gone into this movement for the emancipa-
tion of the oppressed and suffering. It is true we have called upon the
people to arm and prepare for the stormy times before us.
" This seems to be the ground upon which the verdict is to be sus-
tained.
" But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the
same object evinces a design to reduce the people under absolute despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and provide new guards
for their future safety."
" This is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence. Have
vre broken any laws by showing to the people how these abuses, that have
66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
occurred for the last twenty years, are invaribly pursuing one object, viz :
to establish an oligarchy in this country as strong and powerful and mon-
strous as liever before has existed in any country ? I can well understand
why that man Grinnell did not urge upon the grand jury to charge us
with treason. I can well understand it. You cannot try and convict a
man for treason who has upheld the constitution against those who try to
trample it under their feet. It would not have been as easy a job to do
that, Mr. Grinnell, as to charge ' these men ' with murder.
'• Now, these are my ideas. They constitute a part of myself. I can-
not divest myself of them, nor would I, if I could. And if you think that
you can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more
every day, if you think you can crush them out by sending us to the gal-
lows— if you would once more have people to suffer the penalty of death
because they have dared to tell the truth — and I defy you to show us
where we have told a lie — I say, if death is the penalty for proclaim-
ing the truth, then I will proudly and defiantly pay the costly price !
Call your hangman. Truth crucified in Socrates, in Christ, in Giordano
Bruno, in Huss, Gallileo, still lives — they and others whose number is
legion have preceded us on this path. We are ready to follow!
Address of Michael Schwab.
* * * "To term the proceedings during the trial justice, woul(3
be a sneer. Justice has not been done, more than this, could not be done.
If one class is arrayed against the other, it is idle and hypocritical to think
about justice. Anarchy was on trial, as the state's attorney put it in his-
closing speech. A doctrine, an opinion hostile to brute force, hostile to
our present murderous system of production and distribution. I am con-
demned*l;o die for wi'iting newspaper articles and making speeches. The
state's attorney knows as well as I do that that alleged conversation
between Mr. Spies and myself never took place. He knows a good deal more
than that. He knows of all the beautiful work of his organizer, Furth-
man. When I was before the coroner's jury, two or three detectives swore
very positively of having seen me at the haymarket when Mr. Parsons fin-
ished his speech. I suppose they wanted at that time to fix the bomb-
throwing on me. For the first dispatches to Europe said that M. Schwab
had thrown several bombs at the police. Later on they sent detectives to
Lake View, and found that would not do. And then Schnaubelt was
the man.
" Anarchy was on trial. Little did it matter who the persons were
to be honored by the prosecution. It was the movement the blow was
aimed at : it was directed against the labor movement ; against socialism,
for to-day every labor movement must, of necessity, be socialistic.
" Talk about a gigantic conspiracy! A movement is not a conspiracy.
All we did was done in open daylight.
" There were no secrets. We prophesied in word and writing the
coming of a great revolution, a change in the system of production in all
industrial countries of the globe. And the change will come, and must
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. (57
come. Is it not absurd, as the state's attorney and his associates have
done, to suppose that this social revolution — a change of such immense
proportions — was to be inaugurated on or about the first of May in the
city of Cljicago by making war on the police ? The organizer, Furthman
searched hundreds of numbers of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, and the Alarm,
and so the prosecution must have known very well what we understood
when we talked about the coming revolution. But the prosecuting attor-
ney preferred to ignore these explanatory articles.
" The articles in evidence were carefully selected and paraded as
samples of violent language, but the language used in them was just the
same as newspapers used in general against us and their enemies. Even
against the police and their practices they used words of the same kind
as we did.
" The president of the Citizens' Association, Edwin Lee Brown, after
the last election of Mayor Harrison, made a speech in north side Turner
Hall in wlych he called on all good citizens to take possession of the
court-house by force, even if they had to wade* in blood. It seems to me
that the most violent speakers are not to be found in the ranks of the
Anarchists.
"It is not violence in word or action the attorneys of the State and
their urgers-on are waging war against; it is our doctrine — anarchy.
"We contend for communism and anarchy — why? If we had kept
silent, stones would have cried out. Murder was committed day^ by day.
Children were slain, women worked to death, men killed inch by inch,
and these crimes are never punished by law. The great principle under-
lying the present system is unpaid labor. Those who amass fortimes,
build palaces, and live in luxury, are doing that by virtue of unpaid labor.
Being directly or indirectly the possessors of land and machinery, they
dictate their terms to the workingman. He is compelled to sell his labor
cheap, or to starve. The price paid him is always far below the real
value. He acts under compulsion, and they call it a free contract. This
infernal state of affairs keeps him poor and ignorant; an easy prey for
exploitation.
"I know what life has in store for the masses. I was one of them.
I slept in their garrets, and lived in their cellars. I saw them work and
die. I worked with girls in the same factory — prostitutes they were,
because they could not earn enough wages for their living. I saw females
sick from overwork, sick in body and mind on account of the lives they
were forced to lead. I saw girls from ten to fourteen years of age work-
ing for a mere pittance.* I heard how their morals were killed by the
foul and vile language and the bad example of their ignorant fellow-
workers, leading them on to the same road of misery, and as an individual
I could do nothing. I saw families starving and able-bodied men worked
to death. That was in Europe. When I came to the United States, I
found that there were classes of workingmen who were better paid than the
European workmen, but I perceiyed that the state of things in a great
number of industries was even worse, and that the so-called better paid
skilled laborers were degrading rapidly into mere automatic parts of
machinery. I found that the proletariat of the great industrial cities was
68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
in a condition that could not be worse. Thousands of laborers in the city
of Chicago live in rooms without sufficient protection from the weather,
without proper ventilation, where never a stream of sunlight flows in.
There are hovels where two, three and four families live in one room.
How these conditions influence the health and the morals of these unfor-
tunate sufferers, it is needless to say. And how do they live ? From the ash-
barrels they gather half-rotten vegetables, in the butcher shops they buy
for some cents offal of meat, and these precious morsels they carry home
to prepare from them their meals. The delapidated houses in which this
class of laborers live need repairs very badly, but the greedy landlord
waits in most cases till he is compelled by the city to have them done.
Is it a wonder that diseases of all kinds kill men, women and children in
such places by wholesale, especially children ? Is this not horrible in a
so-called civilized land where there is plenty of food and riches ? Some
years ago a committee of the Citizen's Association, or League, made an
investigation of these matters, and I was one of the reporters that went
with them. What these common laborers are to-day, the skilled laborers
will be to-morrow. Improved machinery that ought to be a blessing for
the workingman, under the existing condition turns for him to a curse.
Machinery multiplies the army of unskilled laborers, makes the laborer
more dependent upon the men who own the land and the machines. And
that is the reason that socialism and communism got a foothold in this
country. The outcry that socialism, communism and anarchism are the
creed of foreigners, is a big mistake. There are more socialists of Amer-
ican birth in this country than foreigners, and that is much, if we consider
that nearly half of all industrial workingmen are not native Americans.
There are socialistic papers in a great many States edited by Americans
for Americans. The capitalistic newspapers conceal that fact very care-
fully. .
" Socialism, as we understand it, means that land and machinery shall
be held in common by the people. The production of goods shall be car-
ried on by producing groups which shall supply the demands of the peo-
ple. Under such a system every human being would have an opportunity
to do useful work, and no doubt would work. Four hours' work every
day would suffice to produce all that, according to statistics, is necessary
for a comfortable living. Time would be left to cultivate the mind, and
to further science and art.
" That is what the socialists propose. Some say it is un-American!
Well, then, is it American to let people starve and die in ignorance ? Is
exploitation and robbery of the poor, American ? What have the great
political parties done for the poor ? Promised much ; done nothing, except
corrupting them by buying their votes on election day. A poverty-stricken
man has no interest in the welfare of the community. It is only natural
that in a society where women are driven to sell their honor, men should
sell their votes.
"But we 'were not only socialists and communists; we were anar-
chists.'
"What is anarchy?
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. ft^
"Is it not strange that when anarchy was tried nobody ever told
what anarchy was. Even when I was on the witness stand, and asked
the state's sttorney for a definition of anarchy, he declined to give it.
But in their speeches he and his associates spoke very frequently about
anarchy, and it ai)peared that they understood it to be something horrible
— arson, rapine, murder. In so speaking, IVIr. Grinnell and his associ-
ates did not speak the truth. They searched the Alarm and the Arbeiter-
Zeitung, and hunted up articles written years before the month of May,
1886. In the columns of these papers it is very often stated what we, tho
'anarchists,' understood by the term anarchy. And we are the only com-
petent judges in this matter. As soon as the word is applied to us and
our doctrine, it carriee with it the meaning which we, the anarchists, saw
fit to give to it. * Anarchy' is Greek, and means, verbatim, without
rulership ; not being ruled. According to our vocabulary, anarchy is a
state of society, in which the only government is reason.
" A state of society in which all human beings do right for the simple
reason that it is right, and hate wrong because it i^ wrong. In such a
society, no laws, no compulsion will be necessary. The attorney of the
State was wrong when he said: 'Anarchy is dead.' Anarchy, up to the
present day, has existed only as a doctrine, and Mr. Grinnell has not the
power to kill any doctrine whatever. You many call anarchy, as defined
by us, an idle dream, but that dream was dreamed by Gotthold Ephraim
Lessing, one of the great German poets and the most celebrated German
critic of the last century. If anarchy were the thing the state's attorney
makes it out to be, how could it be that such eminent scholars as Prince
Kropotkin, and the greatest living geographer, Elisee Keclus, were
avowed anarchists, even editors of anarchistic papers? Anarchy is a
dream, but only in the present. It will be realized. Reason will grow
in spite of all obstacles. Who is the man that has the cheek to tell us
that human development has already reached its culminating point?
I know that our ideal will not be accomplished this or next year, but I
know that it will be accomplished as near as possible, some day, in the
future. It is entirely wrong to use the word anarchy as synonymous with
violence. Violence is one thing and anarchy is another. In the present
state of society violence is used on all sides, and, therefore, we advocated
the use of violence against violence, but against violence only, as a neces-
sary means of defense.
*****
'' If I had never seen life as it is, I never would have taken to foretell-
ing the coming downfall of this murderous system, and might now cry
out like the learned and the ignorant mobsters : ' Hang the anarchists ! '
instead of living in the shadow of the gallows. Seeing tho teiTible abuses
with my own eyes, seeing how girls became prostitutes, before they knew
it, observing the slaughter of the little ones, the killing of workingmen by
slow degrees, corruption, misery, crime, h}i)Ocrisy, poverty, dirt, ignorance,
brutality and hunger everywhere, and conceiving that all these things are
the legitimate children of the capitalistic system, which, by establi. h-
ing the right for single persons to possess the means of produc
tion and the land, makes the mass of the people wretched, I became a
70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
* kicker.' For an Honest and honorable man only one course was left, and
I became an opponent to the existing order of things, and was soon called
an anarchist. What are my views? If we socialists, communists and
anarchists held the views malicious or ignorant hirelings impute to us in
their writings, we would simply be madmen who should be confined in an
insane asylum forever. But if it were true that modern socialism, com-
munism and anarchism were methodical madness, how could it be that
these doctrines spread all over the world in so short a time ? No doc-
trine whatever made so quick its march around the world; na doctrine
ever gained so many converts in so few years ! Our martyrs alone count
hundreds of thousands in a score of years- — men, women, yea even chil-
dren. They perished by bullets, gallows, the sword, the guillotine; they
perished in dungeons, in the wilderness, in the snow, and the mines of
Siberia, under the tropical sun, they were driven fi'om town to town, from
country to country, outcast by their families, and some ended in madness
brought about by persecutions such as only modern civilization could
invent. Girls brought up in palatial mansions, with a life of ease and luxury
before them; youths of rich and aristocratic parents worked as common fac-
tory hands, leading a life of misery, with no hope of ever gaining a reward,
often enough despised and betrayed even by the class for whom they
endured all this — only to preach the gospel of the saving of mankind —
socialism, communism, anarchism. Of some of these heroes not even the
names are known. Even one of your famous American poets — Joaquin
Miller — could not help to say, in a poem written to the praine of that
noble anarchist girl, Sophia Perovskaya, who was hung, that he would
rather die with her on the gallows, than live as the Russian Czar. There
is certainly ti-uth in an idea, which has such martyrs. If our doctrine was
wrong, our enemies would state the facts and it would then be compara-
tively easy to show the absurdity of the same. I have been a socialist for
thirteen years, but never, never did I see our views correctly stated by a
capitalistic newspaper. They fabricate wind mills, call them socialism,
communism and anarchism and begin fighting them.
" The modern communir.t holds that labor is the fountain of all wealth
and all culture and that, because useful labor only is possible by associa-
tion of all mankind, the fruits of labor belong to all mankind. Even land
has no value except where it can be put into use by labor. No empty lot
in a city would have the least value, if labor had not built around it
houses and streets, if business was not going on near that lot. We know
further, that labor is not paid its full value; if this were the case, it would
be unprofitable to employ labor and would not be done. Let one man
work alone for himself, he never could grow rich, although even in such
a case his knowledge would be the fruit of the work of others, Ihe labor
of generations. And because the latter is the case, the communis t wants
education, culture and knowledge for all, The land was common property
thousands and thousands of years, and the private property system is^ — to
speak historically — but of yesterday. And how was it introduced ! Queen
Elizabeth, that highly praised monster of murderous lust and brutality,
for instance, had during her reign two millions of Irishmen killed in the
usual way — battles, gaUows, etc., took their land and gave it to favorites.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 71
It is not for me now to give a history how the common lands in England
were stolen and robbed, but it is a historical fact that it was acquired by the
forefathers of the present owners by murder, arson, theft and lesser crimes.
Let the hired men of the press hll their columns with history of the crimes
or land-robbing, if they dare. The sentence: 'Property is robbery,' is
literally true — if you call robbery what the law calls so — of the property
of the British landholders. The socialists and communists know further
that the capitalistic system requires always expansion. The so-called pro-
fits— that is, the fruit of the labor withheld by the employer — :are trans-
formed into capital, to gain for him new profits. New factories are built,
more machines set to work, new markets are sought for, if necessary by
war. More and more nations are drawn into competition. It begins to
become difiicult to find buyers for the goods; each nation, each corpora-
tion, each capitalist wages war against the other for supremacy. He who
sells cheapest holds the market. But not only this is required ; he who is
first in the market, he who can supply the demand in any emergency
quick and cheap, will win the battle.
"This brings in speculation. The demand of the market is but
limited, but the capitalists of all industrial countries are busy to glut it,
to over flood it with the products of their factories. To come out all right
from this insane race for money, it is necessary to supply cheap and
quick, so as to leave other competitors behind. The greater the plant,
the better the machines, the cheaper the workmen, the more probable is
victory. The smaller manufacturer is soon driven from the contest and
forced to. close his establishment; new inventions of labor saving mach-
ines throw workmen out of employment and compel these forces to look
out for new work, as machines tend to transform skilled labor into com-
mon labor. The com|)etition for work among workingmen grows to fear-
ful dimensions and brings wages down to a minimum. But this in turn
has its effect on production, and the battle wages more fearful than ever.
But now reaction sets in. Millions of workmen are starving and leading
the lives of vagabonds. Even the most ignorant wage-slave commences
to think. The common misery makes it clear to them that they must
combine, and they do it. The great levellers, the machines, destroyed the
guild-pride of olden times. The carpenter feels that he has a common
interest with the farm hand, and the printer with the hod-carrier, the
German learns that his interest is that of Negro, of the Frenchman, of the
American, and passing I would like to state, that in my opinion it is the
greatest merit of the order of the Knights of Labor to have carried out
that principle in America in such an immense way. The workingmen
learn that the capitalistic system, although necessary for some time, must
make room for universal co-operation; that the land and means of pro-
duction must pass from the hands of speculators, private individuals into
the hands of the producing masses ; this is communism.
"Any thinking man must concede that strikes, boycotts, co-operation
on a sn\all scale and other means will not and cannot better the condition
of the working-classes, even not so-called factory laws can bring the
sought for result about. It is true the workingmen cannot help to use
these insufficient means, often enough they are forced upon him. They
72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
must be looked on as means of education. Man learns by failures. A
little baby who commences to stand on his feet, tumbles down many and
many a time, before his limbs gain sufficient strength to walk. Many and
many a time it tries to raise itself, till at last the great feat is accomplished.
In all these fights, in striking, boycotting, going into politics, yes, even in.
street riots the young Hercules collects strength to throttle the serpent —
the capitalistic system. The workingmen may be sometimes wrong, why
not, the baby sometimes tries to raise itself by means of the table-cloth,
thus bringing down the dishes, but his impulse to raise is all right, and
therefore the workingman should continue to try raising his condition,
even if he sometimes brings down the dishes.
"Now as to anarchism. Anarchism is order without government. We
anarchists say that anarchism will be the natural outgrowth of universal
co-operation (communism). We say that, when poverty has vanished and
education is common property of the people, that then reason will reign
supreme. We say that crime will belong to the past and that the
misdeeds of erring brethren can be righted by other means than those of
to-day. Most of the crimes of our days are engendered directly by the^
system of to-day, the system which creates ignorance and misery.
"We anarchists do believe that the time is near at hand when the
working people will demand their rights of their exploiters, and we fur-
ther believe, that the slave-holders of to-day will rebel against the majority
of the people, aided by the slums of the cities and duped people of the
country. This struggle, in our opinion, is inevitable.
OscAK Neebe's Remarks.
* * * "I saved for the men from four to five hours a day less work,
I have saved the bakers from six to eight hours work a day, and that gives-
them time for education. We socialists are great believers that the laboring
men should educate themselves; not to be ignoramuses, as some people
express themselves, 'as the ignorant anarchists are,' We are great friends
of education and a reduction of the hours of labor was my principal aim,
and I have done some good work to bring it about, I have been in the
labor movement since 1875. I have seen how the police have trodden on
the constitution of this country, and crushed the labor organizations. I
have seen from year to year how they were trodden down, where they
were shot down, where they were 'driven into their holes like rats,' as
Mr. Grinnell said to the jury. But they will come out! Remember that
within three years before the beginning of the French Revolution, when
laws had been stretched like rubber, that the rubber stretched too long,
and broke — a result which cost a good many state's attorneys at that
time their necks, and a good many honorable men their necks.
"We socialists hope such times may never come again; we do every-
thing in our power to prevent it by reducing the hours of labor and increas-
ing wages. But you capitalists won't allow this to be done. You use
your power to perpetuate a system by which you may make your money
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 73
for yourselves and keep the wage-workers poor. You make them ignorant
and miserable, and you are responsible for it. You won't let the toilers
live a decent life.
"' We want to educate the masses and keej) them back from destroying
life and })roperty, but we are not able to hold the masses when starvation
brings them out of their holes like rats. I have walked along the streets
of this city and I have seen the rats come from their holes by the hundreds
in the basements, where they pay five and ten cents for lodgings. I have
seen the miserable wretches lying there in the day begging for a piece of
bread, and in the night they lie there in an air that nobody hardly could
live in. I have been in there at ten, twelve, and two o'clock at night, and
when those rats are let out of their holes once and get desperate I would
not like to be near them. The time will come that you will see them.
You rich men don't want the workingmen educated. You don't want
anybody to be educated. You want to keep them down in the mud so
you can squeeze the last drop of blood out of theip bones. We asked the
capitalists once at one meeting to discuss the question of labor, and Mr.
Gary was invited and each one of them was invited, and nobody appeared.
They didn't want to discuss the question; they didn't care for it. W^hafc
is the next question ? No discussion, more Gatling guns, more militia,
and three hundred more police. For what ? To catch the thieves ? I
read the daily papers and see burglaries all over the city, but I don't see
that they catch any. There are some 1.200 and odd policemen in the city
of Chicago, and every day so many burglaries. May be they need them
to make a case sometimes, and they don't arrest them; but when it comes
to arresting a poor workingman they are all there. On May 9, when. I
came home, my wife, who is delicate, told me that the patrol wagon, with
twenty -five police came to search my house. I must be a very dangerous
man to take so many police. They searched the whole house and found
a revolver. That is a deadly weapon and a dangerous weapon. I don't
think anybody else has revolvers but anarchists and socialists and labor
agitators.
''They found a red flag, too^a flag of that size (about a foot square)
that my little boy played with, and my wife used at a masquerade ball.
My wife told me that the police — these honorable men to protect law and
order — when they got on that wagon they waved that flag and hollered
and hurrahed just like a lot of wild Indians— and they were wild Indians
in those days. They searched hundreds of houses, and money was stolen
by searching houses, and watches were stolen, and nobody knew whether
they were stolen by the police or not. Captain Schaack knows it. His
gang was one of the worst in this city. You need not laugh about it,
Captain Schaack. You are one of them. You are an anarchist, as you under-
stand it. You are all anarchists, in this sense of the word, I must say.
Well, these are all the crimes I have committed. They found a revolver
in my house, and a red flag there. I organized trades unions. I was for
reduction of the hours of labor, and the education of laboring men, and
the re- establishment of the Arbeiter-Zcitung — the workingmen's newspa-
per. There is no evidence to show that I was connected with the bomb-
throwing, or that I was near it, or anything of that kind. So I am only
74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
sorry, your honor — ^that is, if you can stop it or help it — I will ask you to
do it— that is, to hang me, too; for I think it is more honorable to die
suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and children; and
if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They can go to
the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can't go to the peni-
tentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime that he hasn't
had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say. Your honor, I
am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men.
Adolph Fischer.
"Being familiar with the doctrines of socialism from my earliest youth
I have held it my duty to spread these principles so dear to me whenever
and wherever I could. What induced me to become a socialist, you may
ask ? This I will relate in a few words :
"It happened during the last year of my school days that our tutor
of historical science one day chanced to refer to socialism, which movement
was at that time beginning to flourish in Germany, and which he told us
meant 'division of property.' I am inclined to believe now that it was a
general instruction given by the government to the patriotic pedagogues
to periodically describe to their elder pupils socialism as a most horrible
thing. It is, as is well known, a customary policy on the part of the
respective monarchial governments of the old world to prejudice the unde-
Teloped minds of the youth against everything which is disagreeable to the
despots through the medium of the school teachers. For instance, I
remember quite distinctly that before the outbreak and dui'ing the Franco-
Oerman war we were made to believe by our teachers that every French-
man was at least a scoundrel, if not a criminal. On the other hand, the
kings were praised as the representatives of God, and obedience and loy-
alty to them was described as the highest virtues. Thus the minds of the
children are systematically poisoned, and the fruits of this practice are
made use of when the little ones become men and women. [Enough at
the mentioned occasion our teachers told us that the socialists were a lot
of dnmkards, swindlers and idlers, who were opposed to work.] 'The
time draws nigh,' that worthy said, placing his forefinger significantly
alongside of his roman nose, 'when you young men will have to earn your
daily bread in the sweat of your brow. Some of you may acquire wealth,
while others will be less fortunate. Now, these socialists — mark you, who
^e a lazy set of people — intend to forcibly make you divide with them
everything you possess at the termination of every year. For instance, if
you should call two pairs of boots your own, one of these socialistic scoun-
drels will kindly relieve you of one pair. How would you like this ?'
Oertainly, we thought we did not like this at all. Neither would I con-
sent to anything of that sort to-day. Most decidedly not. Such an
arrangement, I fancied, would be absurd. Now I knew it to be a fact
that my father took part in socialistic meetings very fi-equently, and I
wondered that day why he — ^whom I thought to be so good — should have
THE PmLOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 75
iatercourse with such a bad class of men, whose object it was to lead a lazy-
life and to make the sober, industrious working people, at the termination
of oach year, divide their earnings with them. When I reached home
that day I intimated to my father what (according to what the teacher had
told us) bad people the socialists must be. Much to my surprise my dear
father laughed aloud and embraced me very affectionately. *Dear
Adolph,' he said, *if socialism is what your teacher explained it to be, why
then the very same institutions which prevail now, would be socialistic'
And my father went on to show me how, in fact, there were so many idlers
and indolent people under the now existing form of society, who were residing
in palatial houses and living luxuriously at the expense of the sober and
industrious working people, and that socialism had the mission to abolish
such unjust division. After this day I accompanied my father to socialistic
gatherings, and soon became convinced of the tiTith of what he had said.
" I began to study. Wandering about the streets I often saw groups
of hard-fisted men who were working in quarries and other places of toil,
and handling heavy picks and clumsy shovels from early morning until
late at night. Standing a little aside I would notice an elegantly dressed
individual, smoking a Havana, and seemingly interested in the work of
the toilers. The hands of the idler were covered with kid gloves, in the
bosom of his snow-white shirt glittered a diamond pin, and from his vest
^dangled a valuable ^old watch and chain. You can guess, dear reader,
who this gentleman was- — the 'employer.' The busy toilers, nothwith-
standing the many hours of strained work, could scarcely earn enough to
keep themselves and families from want. I saw they inhabited miserable
hovels, and the pleasures and comforts of life were unkown to them.
Their children were hollow-eyed and resembled fence posts covered with
human skin more than human beings. Following, on one occasion, tne
fine gentleman whom I had seen standing idly by, and who had commanded
the workingmen, I saw him enter a wonderfully beautiful house — a
palace. Costly pictures decorated the massive walls of its parlors, pre-
cious carpets covered the floors and golden chandeliers were suspended
from the ceilings. The safes and pantries were bursting with its tempt-
ing contents, and the tables covered with choice wines and delicacies. In
short, everything good and agreeable could be enjoyed here in abundance.
This contrast between the busy toiler and the idle bystander did not fail
to impress itself upon my mind, especially as I observed that these con-
ditions existed everywhere and in all branches of industiy. I perceived
that the diligent, never resting human working bees, who create all wealth
and fill the magazines with provisions, fuel and clothing, enjoy only a
minor part of their produots and lead a comparatively miserable life,
whilst the drones, the idlers, keep the ware-houses locked up and revel in
luxury and voluptuousness. Was I wrong, or was the world wrong ? I
saw men who manufactured shoes and boots and had helped fill the store-
house with these products ever since their boyhood, and yet they lingered
io leave their shanties after rainy weather for fear of getting wet feet,
and in many cases the toes of their children's feet peeped speakingly out
of the top of the shabby shoes. Bricklayers were busy building houses
irom sunrise until sunset for several decades, yet as I looked about me. I
76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM.
discovered but very few who called a house their own; they were bound
to pay rent for the very same houses which they had built. The clothing
stores I knew to be crammed with goods, but it was not a rare spectacle in
my native city to see tailors walk about in the streets with pants patched
to such an extent, that they resembled chess boards. Whilst the journey-
men bakers were half -roasting in the hot bake-house, sixteen out of twenty-
four hours a day, their wives in many instances did not know where to-
get a loaf of bread. My father's neighbor worked in a butcher shop, but
his wages were so low that his family could afford the luxury of one
pound of meat only once a week — on Sunday. All these circumstances-
convinced me that 'there must be something rotten in the state of Den-
mark,' and it did not even require a prof ound thinker or a sorcerer to dis-
cover that the prevailing social institutions were based upon the extortion
of one class by another.
"The capitalistic papers of this country sneered at a certain Indian
chief; I think Red Cloud, who, they reported had said: * What we (tho
Indians) want is white men to plant our corn, hoe it, harvest it, and put
it into barns which they will build for us.' Now, I cannot comprehend
why the capitalistic press considers this utteranee of Red Cloud as a.
peculiar one. Have not the capitalists put this very same idea into prac-
tice? Let us investigate. Instead of the words 'white men,' use the
expression ' workingmen,' and it will read thus: ' What we (the capital-
ists, the privileged class) want is workingmen to plant our corn, hoe it,
harvest it, and put it into barns which they will build for us.' Well,
nevertheless, these conditions exist to-day. The wage-slaves really pro-
duce everything, and store their products away into warehouses which
they build for their masters ; and besides they build for them also palaces
such as Red Cloud never had on his programme. Yes ; and the toilers do-
more than that; they decorate their masters with diamonds, and over-bur-
den them with luxuries and riches of which Red Cloud never dreamed.
Who can deny this fact?
" In order to illustrate the existing social 'order,' I will draw the fol-
lowing parable:
" A long time ago the forests of a tropical land were populated by a.
happy lot of monkeys. They lived together like a large family and quar-
relling and discontentedness were qualities totally unknown to them. For
a livelihood they searched the surroundings for food for themselves and
their young ones in a harmonious way and without grudge. They were
happy, indeed. One day some cunning monkeys were overcome by a very
smart idea. They erected fences around the best paxts of the forests and
forbade their fellow-monkeys to hunt for food inside of the hedged regions.
They namea these pieces of land ' property.' Xow, the propertyless mon-
keys were in utter despair, for they did not know where to get food for
themselves and families. They called upon the property-owners and com-
plained of their impossibility of making a livelihood. The propertied
monkeys said unto them: ' We may allow you to seek food on our pro-
perty under the condition that you will give us half of the result of your
labor.' This offer the poor propertyless monkeys were compelled to
accept, as there was no other way of making a living. No other choice
THE PHILOSQPHY Or ANABCHISM. 77
was left open to them as either to accept or starve. The propertyless
monkeys had to build large ware-houses for their ' employers,' into which
to store away their products. As a compensation they received so much
for their services as was sufficient to keep themselves and families alive.
This was called 'means.' The property-owning monkeys became very
wealthy, and were living in luxury and idleness. And why should they
not ? Did not the poor monkeys work for them, and thus enable them to
be idle and yet debauch in abundance ?
" For a long time the working monkeys did not grumble, but were
very obedient. Generations thus passed, and the monkeys thought that
the * social institutions ' could not be otherwise and that there had to be
rich and poor monkeys, because these were the conditions which existed
already when they were bom. But the employers grew continually richer
whilst the portion of the products of the workers, which they received as a
compensation, were reduced to the lowest standard. Consequently the
poor working monkeys were living in destitution and misery, notwithstand-
ing the fact that the warehouses were filled with food. Discontentedness
among the workers was the natural result of the growing wealth on one
side and increasing poverty on the other. In order to keep the grumb-
ling monkeys in subjection and maintain the respect for the existing insti-
tutions (which were called 'law and order ') the propertied classes hired
numbers of able-bodied monkeys from the ranks of the propertyless classes.
Those men were called police, sheriffs, malitia, a. s. f.
" Now, the dissatisfied monkeys assembled frequently for the purpose
of seeking remedy for the existing evils. As the opinions as to ways and
means to secure better conditions were very different they formed
various organizations. Some of the workers aimed at ' higher wages '
and others wanted to work less time. Still another class of workers
held that the ' wage-system ' should be abolished entirely. They said
that the propertied monkeys had accumulated their riohes by robbing the
workers out of the major part of the results of their labor. Furthermore,
they claimed that the wealthy classes had no right to monopolize the
natural resources of existence and thereby force their fellow- monkeys into
their services, but that the mother- earth and her products belonged to the
monkey race in common. The monkeys who confessed the latter ideas
were considered very dangerous by the privileged class. ' Law and order is
endangered,' the wealthy cried. * Those anarchists want to overthrow our
glorious institutions and turn everything topsy-turvy. We must do away
with those bloodthirsty rascals, who want to take our property and who
are undermining our free and glorious institutions.' The propertied
monkeys were also opposed to that part of the working monkeys who only
demanded a larger compensation for their work; but their hate against
those who wanted to abolish their privileges altogether was immeasurable.
" The capitalistic press, and even numerous labor journals, define
anarchism as murder, plunder, arson and outrage upon society in general.
These * learned ' journalists, or at least a majority of them thus defining
anarchism, misrepresent the object and aims of this teaching maliciously.
Anarchism does not mean plunder and outrage upon society ; contrarily,
its mission is to outroot the systematical plunder of a vast majority of the
78
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM.
people by a comparatively few — the working classes by the capitalists.
It aims at the extermination of the outrages committed by the reigning
classes upon the wage-slaves, under the name of ' law and order.' Murder,
plunder, robbery, outrages. ' Is an anarchist really the impersonation of
all crimes, of everything dastardly and damnable ?' The ' International
Working Peoples' Association,' the organization of the anarchists, has
the following platform, which was agreed upon at the congress at Pitts-
burg in October, 1883. Let this platform be the answer to the question I
have raised before:
" 1. Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i. e., by
energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action.
" 2. Establishment of a free society based upon co-operative organi-
tion of production.
" 3. Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the pro-
ductive organizations without commerce and profit-mongery.
" 4. Organization of education on a secular, scientific and equal basis
for both sexes.
" 5. Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or race.
" 6. Regulation of all public afPairs by free contracts between the
autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a feder-
alistic basis.
" Does this sound like outrages and crime ?
" In the course of my observations I will dwell more thoroughly on
the aims and objects of anarchy.
" Many people undoubtedly long to know what the relationship
between anarchism and socialism is, and whether these two doctrines
have anything in common with each other. A number of persons claim,
that an anarchist cannot be a socialist, and a socialist not an anarchist.
This is wrong. The philosophy of socialism is a general one, and covers
several subordinate teachings. To illustrate, I will cite the word ' Christ-
ianity.' There are Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Congrega-
tionalists, and various other religious sects, all of whom call themselves
Christians. Although every Catholic is a Christian, it would not be cor-
rect to say that every Christian believes in Catholicism. Webster defined
socialism thus: 'A more orderly, equitable and harmonious arrangement
of social affairs than has hitherto prevailed.' Anarchism is aiming at this;
anarchism is seeking a more just form of society. Therefore every anar-
chist is a socialist but every socialist is not necessarily an anarchist. The
anarchists again are divided into two factions ; the communistic anarchists
andtheProudhon or middle -class anarchists. The 'International Working
Peoples' Association ' is the representative organization of the communistic
anarchists. Politically we are anarchists, and economically, communists or
socialists. With regard to political organization tJie communistic anarchists
demand the abolition of political authority, the state ; we deny the right of a
single class or single individual to govern or rule another class or individual.
We hold that, as long as one man is under the dictation of another, as
long as one man can in any form subjugate his fellow man, and as long as
the means of existence can be monopolized by a certain class or certain indi-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM. 79
viduals, there can be no liberty. Concerning the economical form of society,
we advocate the commimistic or co-operative method of production.
"As to the distribution of products, a free exchange between the
organizations of productions without profit-mongery would take place.
Machinery and the means of production in general would be the com-
mon servant, and the products certainly the common property of the
whole of the people. In what respect do the social-democrats differ
from the anarchists ? The state- socialists do not seek the abolition of the
state, but they advocate the centralization of the means of production in
the hands of the government; in other words, they want the government
to be the controller of industry. Now, a socialist who is not a state-social-
ist must necessarily be an anarchist. It is utterly ridiculous for men like
Dr. Aveling to state that they are neither state-socialists nor anarchists.
Dr. Aveling has to be either one or the other.
" The term ' anarchism' is of Greek origin and means * without gov-
ernment,' or, in other words, * without oppression.' I only wish that every,
workingman would understand the proper meaning of this word. It is anj
absurd falsehood if the capitalists and their hired editors say that anarch-
ism is identical with disorder and crime. On the contrary, anarchism
wants to do away with the now existing social disorder; it aims at the
establishment of the real — the natural — order. I think every sensible man
ought to conceive, that where ruling is existing on one hand, there must
be submission on the other. He who rules is a tyrant, and he who sub-
mits is a slave. Logically there can be no other outlet, because submis-
sion is the antithesis of rule. Anarchists hold that it is the natural right
of every member of the human family to control themselves. If a central-
ized power — government — is ruling the mass of people (no matter whether
this government 'represents the will of the majority of the people' or not)
it is enslaving them, and a direct violation of the laws of nature. When
laws are made there must be certain interests which cause their issue.
Now every statute law, and consequently every violation thereof — crime —
can be traced back to the institution of private property. The state pro-
tects the interests of the owners of private property (wealthy class), and
therefore does not and cannot possibly protect the interests of the non-
possessing people (the wage-workers), because the interests of both are of
an opposite nature. The capitalists who have taken possession of the
means of production^factories, machinery, land; etc., are the masters,
and the workingmen who have to apply to the capitalists for the use of
the means of production (for which they receive a small compensation in
order to live), are the slaves. The interests of the capitalistic class are
backed by the state (militia, sheriffs, and police) while the interests of the
non-possessing people are not protected. Anarchists say that there^)
should be no class interests, but that every human being should have
free access to the means of existence and that the pantries of mother- earth
should be accessible to all of her children. One part of the great human
family has no right to deprive their brothers and sisters of their legiti-
mate place at the common table, which is set so richly by generous moth-
er-nature for all. Anarchists, as well as all other thinking people, claim,
that in the present society, a great number of people are deprived of a
80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
decent existence. We demand the re-installation of the disinherited! Is
this a crime ? Is this an outrage upon society ? Are we therefore dan-
gerous criminals, whose lives should be taken in the interests of the com-
mon g;ood of society ?
*****
"Yes, the anarchists demand the re-installation of the disinherited
members of the human family. It is, therefore, quite natural that the
privileged classes should hate them. Why, do not wrong doing parties
always hate those who disclose the nature of their transactions and open
the eyes of their ignorant victims ? Certainly they do. The anarchists
are very much hated by the extortioners ; indeed, they are proud of it. To
them, this is a proof that they are on the right road. But the ruling
classes very cunningly play the role of the thief, who, when pursued by
his discoverers, cries out, 'stop the thief,' and by this manipulation suc-
ceeds in making good his escape. The anarchists have proven that the
existing form of society is based upon the exploitation of one class by
another; in plain words, upon legalized robbery. They say that few per-
sons have no right whatever, to monopolize the resources of nature; and
they urge the victims, the toilers, to take possession of the means of pro-
duction, which belong to the people in common, and thus secure the full
benefit of their toil. Anarchists do not want to deprive the capitalists of
their existence, but they protest against the capitalists depriving the toilers
of their right to a decent existence. Should the communistic form of
production prevail, the capitalists of to-day would not have to starve;
they would be situated just as comfortably and would be just as happy
(yea, happier than they are now) as the rest of the people. But, certainly
they would have to take an active part in the production and be satisfied
with their respective share of the results of labor, performed in common
with their fellowmen. The strongest bulwark of the capitalistic system is
the ignorance of its victims. The average toiler shakes his head like the
incredulous Thomas, when one tries to make plausible to him that he is
held in economic bondage. And yet this is so easily to be seen if one only
takes the pains to think a little. Working at my trade alongside my col-
leagues, whom I tried to convince of my ideas, I used to tell them a story
about some foxes : ' Several foxes, in speculating about some scheme which
would enable them to live without hunting for food themselves, succeeded
at last in discovering one. They took possession of all the springs and
other water-places. Now, as the other animals came to quench their
thirst, the foxes said unto them: The water-places belong to us ; if you
want to drink, you must bring us something in return, you must bring us
food for compensation. The other animals were foolish enough to obey,
and, in order to drink, they had to hunt the whole day for food for the
foxes, so that they themselves had to live very meagerly. I asked one of
my colleagues, who was prominent as a denunciator of socialism, what his
opinion was concerning the just mentioned story. He said that the ani-
mals who were thus swindled by the foxes were very foolish in obeying
them, and ought to drive the latter away from the water-places. When I
directed his attention to the fact that a similar practice was being culti-
vated in modem society, with the only difference that the role of the foxes
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 81
was occupied by the capitalists, and the water-places were represented by
the moans of production, and that he (my colleague) was very inconsistent
in condemning the one and defending the other, he owed me the answer.
This, for instance, illustrates the ignorance and indifference of the average
workingmeii. In the case of the foxes, they see no more and no less than
robbery in their schemes, whilst in the case of the capitalists they approve
of their methods.
" Many inconsistent objections to anarchism are being made by its
opponents. Some people have the impression that in an anarchistic
society, where there is nobody to govern and nobody to be governed, ^very
person would be isolated. This is false. Men have implanted by nature
an impulse to associate with their fellow men. In a free society mea
would form economic as well as social associations; but all organizations
would be voluntary, not compulsory. As I have asserted before, laws and
the violations thereof, crimes, are attributed to the institution of private
property, especially to the unequal distribution of the means of existence,
to degradation and want. When the institution of private property will
be abolished; when economic and social equalities will be established;
when misery and want will belong to the past, then crime will be unknown
and laws will become superfluous. It is a wrong assertion when people
claim that a man is a criminal because of a natural disposition to crime.
A man, as a rule, is but the reflex of the conditions which surround him.
In a society, which places no obstacles in the road of free development of
men, and which gives everybody an equal share to the pursuit of happi-
ness, there will be no course which will induce men to become bad.
" The legalized private-property system gives birth to crime and at
the same time punishes it because it exists. The mother punishes her
own. child because it is bom. Do away with the systems that produce
evils and the latter will vanish. The removal of the cause is synonymous
with the removal of the effects; but the social diseases will never be cured
if you declare war against the victims and on the other hand defend the
cause which produced them. If one has the small-pox it would not cure
the disease if one would scratch the scabs off. The disease in this case is
the system of private -property, and the scabs its evil effects.
"How will the anarchists realize their ideas? What means do they
intend to employ to accomi)lish the realization of a free society. Much
has boon written and talked on this subject, and, as an avowed anarchist,
I will in plain terms give my individual opinion to the readers of this
journal. The * anarchism' itself does not indicate force; on the contrary
it means peace. But I believe that everybody who has studied the true
character of the capitalistic form of society, and who will not deceive him-
self, will agree with me that now and never will the ruling classes aban-
don their privileges peaceably. Anarchism demands a thorough trans-
formation of society, the total abolition of the private -property system.
Now, history shows us that even reforms within the frame of the existing
society have never been accomplished without the force of arms. Feudal-
ism received its death blow through the great French revolution a century
ago, which at the same time gave form to modern capitalism. Capitalism
now is speedily attaining its most extreme character, that is, it is develop-
82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF AI^AECHISM.
ing into monopolism. Wealth concentrates itself more and more in a few
hands and the misery and poverty of the great mass of people is conse-
quently enlarging in the same degree. The rich ^et richer and the poor
poorer. Like the ruling classes in the eighteenth century, so the same
classes at the eve of the nineteenth century are deaf to the complaints and
warnings of the disinherited, and blind to the misery and degradation
which surround their luxuriously outfitted palaces. The natural result
will be that perhaps before the nineteenth century will wing its last hours
the people will arise en masse, expropriate the privileged and proclaim
the freedom of the human race. It is wrong if people assert that the
anarchists will be responsible for the coming revolution. No, the drones
of society are the parties who will have to answer to the charge of being
the cause of the prospective uprising of the people; for the rich and
mighty have ears and hear not, and eyes and yet see not.
"To abolish chattel slavery in this country a long and awful war
took place. Notwithstanding the fact that indemnification was offered
for their losses, the slaveholders would not bestow freedom upon their
slaves. Now, in my judgment, he who believes that the modern slave
holders — the capitalists — would voluntarily, without being forced to do
so, give up their privileges and set free their wage-slaves, are poor stu-
dents. Capitalists possess too much egotism to give way to reason. Their
egotism is so enormous that they even refuse to grant subordinate and
insignificant concessions. Capitalists and syndicates, for instance, rather
lose millions of dollars than to accept the eight-hour labor system. Would
a peaceable solution of the social question be possible, the anarchists
would be the first ones to rejoice over it.
"But is it not a fact that on the occasion of almost every strike the
minions of the institution of private property — militia, police, deputy
sheriffs, yea, even federal troops — are being called to the scenes of the
conflict between capital and labor, in order to protect the interests of
capital. Did it ever happen that the interests of labor were guarded by
these forces ? What peaceable means should the toilers employ ? There
is, for example, the strike. If the ruling classes want to enforce the 'law'
they can have every striker arrested and punished for ' intimidation' and
conspiracy. A strike can only be successful if the striking workingmen
prevent their places being occupied by others. But this prevention is a
crime in the eyes of the law. Boycott! In several states the 'courts of
justice' have decided that the boycott is a violation of the law, and in con-
sequence thereof a number of boycotters have had the pleasure of examin-
ing the inner construction of penitentiaries ' for conspiracy' against the
interests of capital. 'But,' says some apostle of harmony, 'there is
something left which will help us; there is the ballot.' No doubt many
people who say this are honest in their belief.
"But scarcely did the workingmen participate in the elections as a
class, many representatives of ' law and order ' advocate a limitation (in
mf'.ny instances even the total abolition) of the right of the proletarian to
vote. People who read the Chicago Tribune and Times and other repre-
sentative capitalistic organs, will confirm my statement. The propaganda
among capitalists in favor of limiting the right to vote tj t:ix pavers —
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 83
property owners — only, is increasing constantly, and will bo realized
whenever the political movement of the workingmen becomes really dan^
gerous to the interests of capital. The ' Law and Order League ' of capi-
talists, recently organized all over the country to defeat the demands of
organized labor, has declared that the workingmen must not bd allowed
to obtain power over the ballot box. They have so resolved everywhere.
"The anarchists are not blind. They see the development of things
and predict that a collision between the plebeians and patricians is inevita-
ble. Therefore in time for the coming struggle — to arms! If threatening
clouds are visible on the horizon, I advise my fellow-man to carry an
umbrella with him, so he will not get wet. Am I then the cause of the
rain ? No. So let me say plainly that, in my opinion, only by the force
of arms can the wage slaves make their way out of capitalistic bondage.
"As the court as well as the states- attorney have plainly said, the ver-
dict of death was rendered for the purpose of crushing the anarchistic and
the socialistic movement. But I am satisfied that just the contrary has
been accomplished by this barbarous measure. Thousands of workingmen
have been led by our 'conviction' to study anarchism, and if we are exe-
cuted, we can ascend the scaffold with the satisfaction that by our death,
we have advanced our noble cause more than we could possibly have done
had we grown As old as Methusalah."
Address of Louis Lingg.
"Court of Justice! With the same irony with which you have
regarded my efforts to win, in this 'free land of America,' a livelihood
such as human kind is worthy to enjoy, do you now, after condemning me
to death, concede me the li])erty of making a final speech.
"I accept your concession; but it is only for the purpose of exposing
the injustice, the calumnies, and the outrages which have been heaped
upon me.
"You have accused me of murder, and convicted me: what proof have
you brought that I am guilty ? *
" In the first place, you have brought this fellow Seliger to testify
against me. Him I have helped to make bombs, and you have further
proven that with the assistance of another, I took those bombs to No. 58
Clybourne avenue, but what you have not proven — even with the assist-
ance of your bought 'squealer,' Seliger, who would appear to have acted
such a prominent part in the affair — is that any of those bombs were taken
to the haymarket.
"A couple of chemists also, have been brought here as specialists, yet
they could only state that the metal of which the haymarket bomb was
made bore a certain resemblance to those bombs of mine, and your Mr.
Ingham has vainly endeavored to deny that the bombs were quite differ-
ent. He had to admit that there was a differe^nce of a full half inch in
their diameters, although he suppressed the fact that there was also a dif-
ference of a quarter of an inch in the thickness of the shell. This is the
kind of evidence upon which you have convicted me.
84 ' THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
*'It is not miirder, Jiowever, of wliich you have convicted me. The
judge has stated that much only this morning in his resume of the case,
and Grinnell has repeatedly asserted that we were being tried, not for
murder, but for anarchy, so that the condemnation is — that I am an
anarchist !
"What is anarchy? This is a subject which my comrades have
•explained with sufficient clearness, and it is unneccessary for me to go
over it again. They have told you plainly enough what our aims are.
The state's attorney, however, has not given you that information. He
ha& merely criticized and condemned not the doctrines of anarchy, but our
methods of giving them practical effect, and even here he has maintained
a discreet silence as to the fact that those methods were forced upon us by
the brutality of the police. Grinnell' s own proffered remedy for our
grievances is the ballot and combination of trades unions, and Ingham has
even avowed the desirability of a six-hour movement ! But the fact is,
that at every attempt to wield the ballot, at every endeavor to combine the
efforts of workingmen, you have displayed the brutal violence of the police
club, and this is why I have recommended rude force, to combat the ruder
force of the police.
"You have charged me with despising 'law and order.' What does
your *law and order' amount to? Its representatives ar« the police, and
they have thieves in theii' ranks. Here sits Captain Schaaclj. He has
himself admitted to me that my hat and books have been stolen from him
in his office — stolen by policemen. These are your defenders of property
rights !
"The detectives again, who arrested me, forced their way into my
room like house breakers, under false pretences, giving the name of a car-
penter, Lorenz, of Burlington street. They have sworn that I was alone
in my room, therein perjuring themselvea You have not subpoenaed this
lady, Mrs. Klein, who was present, and could have sworn that the afore-
said detectives broke into my room under false pretenses, and that their
testimonies are perjured.
"But let us go further. In Schaack we have a captain of the police,
and he also has perjured himself. He has sworn that I admitted to him
being present at the Monday night meeting, whereas, I distinctly
informed him that I was at a carpenter's meeting at Zepf's Hall. He has
sworn again that I told him that I had learned how to make bombs from
Herr Most's book. That, also, is a perjury.
" Let us go still a step higher among these representatives of law and
order. Grinnell and his associates have permitted perjury, and I say that
they have done it knowingly. The proof has been adduced by my counsel,
and with my own eyes I have seen Grinnell point out to Gilmer, eight
days before he came upon the stand, the persons of the men whom he was
to swear against.
" While I, as I have stated above, believe in force for the sake of
winning for myself and fellow- workmen a livelihood such as men ought to
have, Grinnell* on the other hand, through his police and other rogues,
has suborned prejury in order to murder seven men, of whom I am one.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AN.VRCHISM. 85
" Grinnell had the pitiful courage here in the courtroom, where I
could not defend myself, to call me a coward! The scoundrel! A fellow
who has leagued himself with a parcel of base, hireling knaves, to bring
me to the gallows. Why ? For no earthly reason save a contemptible
selfishness — a desire to 'rise in the world' — to 'make money,' forsooth.
" This wretch — who, by means of the perjuries of other wretches is
going to murder seven men — is the fellow who calls me ' coward !' And
yet you blame me for despising such ' defenders of the law ' — such un-
speakable hypocrites!
" Anarchy means no domination or authority of one man over anoth-
er, yet you call that 'disorder.' A system which advocates no such
* order ' as shall require the services of rogues and thieves to defend it you
call 'disorder.'
" The Judge himself was forced to admit that the state's attorney had
not been able to connect me with the bomb throwing. The latter knows
how to get around it, however. He charges me with being a ' conspira-
tor.' How does he prove it? Simply by declaring the International
Workingmens' Association to be a 'conspiracy.' I was a member of that
body, HO he has the charge securely fastened on me. Excellent ! Nothing
is too difficult for the genius of a state's attorney!
" It is hardly iocumbent upon me to review the relations which I
occupy to my companions in misfortune. I can say truly and openly that
I am not as intimate with my fellow prisoners as I am with Captain
Schaack.
" The universal misery, the ravages of the capitalistic hyena have
brought us together in our agitation, not as persons, but as workers in the
same cause, Such is the ' conspiracy ' of which you have convicted me.
" I protest against the conviction, against the decision of the court. I
do not recogni'ze your law, jumbled together as it is by the nobodies of by-
gone centuries, and I do not recognize the decision of the court. My own
counsel have conclusively proven from the decisions of equally high courts
that a new trail must be granted us. The state's attorney quotes three
times as many decisions from perhaps still higher courts to prove the
opposite, and I am convinced that if, in another trial, these decisions should
be supported by twenty-five volumes, they will adduce one hundred in
8up})ort of the contrary, if it is anaichists who are to be tried. And not
even under such a law, a law that a schoolboy must despise, not even by
such methods have they been able to ' legally ' convict us.
" They have suborned perjury to boot.
" I tell you frankly and openly, I am for force. I have already told
Captain Schaack, ' if they use cannons against us, we shall use dynamite
against them."
" I repeat that I am the enemy of the ' order ' of to-day, and I repeat
that, with all my powers, so long as breath remains in me, I shall combat
it. I declare again, frankly and oj^enly, that I am in favor of using force.
I have told Captain Schaack, and I stand by it, ' if you cannonade us we
shall dynamite you.' You laugh!' Perhaps you think, 'you'll throw no
more bombs;' but let me assure you that I die happy on the j allows so
confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have
86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged
us, then, mark my words, they will do the bomb-throwing! In this
hope do I say to you: 'I despise you. I despise your order; your
laws, your force-propped authority.' Hang me for it!
George Engell,^ on Anarchism.
" This is the first occasion of my standing before an American court,
and on this occasion it is murder of which I am accused. And for what
reasons do I stand here ? For what reasons am I accused of murder ?
The same that caused me to leave Germany — the poverty — the misery
of the working classes.
"And here, too, in this 'free republic,' in the richest country of the
world, there are numerous proletarians for whom no table is set; who, as
outcasts of society, stray joylessly through life. I have seen human beings
gather their daily food from the garbage heaps of the streets, to quiet
therewith their knawing hunger.
" I have read of occurrences in the daily papers which proves to me
that here, too, in this great ' free land,' people are doomed to die of star-
vation. This brought me to reflection, and to the question: What are
the peculiar causes that could bring about such a condition of society ? I
then began to give our political institutions more attention than formerly.
My discoveries brought to me the knowledge that the same society evils
exist here that exist in Germany. This is the explanation of what induced
me to study the social question, to become a socialist. And I proceeded with
all the means at my command, to make myself familiar with the new
doctrine.
" Wiien in 1 878, I came here from Philadelphia, I strove to better my
condition, believing it would be less difficult to establish a means of liveli-
hood here than in Philadelphia, where I had tried in vain to make a living.
But here, too, I found myself disappointed. I began to understand that
it made no difference to the proletarian, whether he lived in New York,
Philadelphia, or Chicago. In the factory in which I worked I became
acquainted with a man who pointed out to me the causes that brought
about the difficult and fruitless battles of the workingmen for the means
of existence. He explained to me, by the logic of scientific socialism, how
mistaken I was in believing that I could make an independent living by
the toil of my hands, so long as machinery, raw material, etc., were guar-
anteed to the capitalists as private property by the State. That I might
further enlighten my mind in regard to these facts, I purchased with
money earned by myself and family, socialogical works, among them those
of LaSalle, Marx, and Henry George. After the study of these books, it
became clear to me why a workingman could not decently exist in this rich
country. I now began to think of ways and means to remedy this. I hit
upon the ballot box; for it had been told me so often that this was the
means by which workingmen could better their condition.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 87
"I took p£irt in politics with the earnestness of a good citizen; but I
was soon to find that the teachings of a ' free ballot box ' are a myth, and
that I had again been duped. I came to the opinion that as long as work-
ingmen are economically enslaved they cannot be politically free. It became
clear to me that the working classes would never bring about a form of
society guaranteeing work, bread, and a happy life by means of the ballot.
"Before I had lost my faith in the ballot-box the following occur-
rences transpired which proved to me that the politicians of this country
were through and through corrupt. When, in the fourteenth ward, in
which I lived and had the right to vote, the social- democratic party had
grown to such dimensions as to make it dangerous for the republican and
democratic parties, the latter forthwith united and took stand against the
social democrats. This, of course, was natural; for are not their interests
identical ? And as the social-democrats nevertheless elected their candi-
dates, they were beaten out of the fruits of their victory by the corrupt
schemes of the old political parties. The ballot-box was stolen and the
votes so 'corrected' that it became possible for the opposition to proclaim
their candidates elected. The workingmen sought to obtain justice through
the coui-ts, but it was all in vain. The trial cost them fifteen hundred
dollars, but their rights they never obtained.
"Soon enough I found that political corruption had burrowed through
the ranks of the social -democrats. I left this party and joined the Inter-
national Working People's Association, that was just being organized. The
members of that body have the firm conviction that the workingman can
free himself from the tyranny of capitalism only through force ; just as all
advances of which history speaks, have* been brought about through force
alone. We see from the history of this country that the first colonists won
their liberty only through force ; that through force slavery was abolished,
and just as the man who agitated against slavery in this country, had to
ascend the gallows, so also must we. He who speaks for the workingman
to-day must hang. And why ? Because this republic is not governed by
people who have obtained their ofiice honestly.
"Who are the leaders at Washington that are to guard the interests
of this nation ? Have they been elected by the people, or by the aid of
their money ? They have no right to make laws for us, because they were
not elected by the people. These are the reasons why I have lost all
respect for American laws.
"The fact that through the improvement of machinery so many men
are thrown out of employment, or at best, working but half the time,
brings them to reflection. They have leisure, and they consider how their
conditions can be changed. Reading matter that has been written in their
interest gets into their hands, and faulty though their education may be,
they can nevertheless cull the truths contained in those writings. This,
of course, is not pleasant for the capitalistic class, but they cannot prevent
it. And it is my firm conviction that in a comparatively short time the
great mass of ])roletarians will understand that they can be freed from
their bonds only through socialism. One must consider what Carl Schurz
said scarcely eight years ago: That, 'in this country there is no space for
socialism;' and yet to-day socialism stands before the bars of the court.
88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
For this reason it is my firm conviction that if these few years suffice to
make socialism one of the burning questions of the day, it will require but
a short time more to put it in practical operation.
"All that I have to say in regard to my conviction is, that I was not
at all surprised ; for it has ever been that the men who have endeavored to
enlighten their fellow man have been thrown into prison or put to death,
as was the case with John Brown. I have found, long ago, that the work-
ingman has no more rights here than anywhere else in the world. The
state's attorney has stated that we were not citizens. I have been a citi-
zen this long time; but it does not occur to me to appeal for my rights as
a citizen, knowing as well as I do that this does not make a particle of
difference. Citizen or not — as a working man I am without rights, and
therefore I respect neither your rights nor your laws, which are made and
directed by one class against the other; the working class.
"Of what does my crime consist?
" That I have labored to bring about a system of society by which it
is impossible for one to hoard millions, through the improvements in
machinery, while the great masses sink to degradation and misery. As
water and air are free to all, so should the inventions of scientific men be
applied for the benefit of all. The statute laws we have are in opposition
to the laws of nature, in that they rob the great masses of their rights to
*life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'
"I am too much a man of feeling not to battle against the societary
conditions of to-day. Every considerate person must combat a system
which makes it possible for the individual to rake and hoard millions in a
few years, while, on the other side, thousands become tramps and beggars.
''Is it to be wondered at that under such circumstances men arise
who strive and struggle to create other conditions, where the humane
humanity shall take precedence of all other considerations. This is the
aim of socialism, and to this I joyfully subscribe.
" The state's attorney said here that ' anarchy ' was 'on trial.' "
" Anarchism and socialism are as much alike, in my opinion, as one
egg is to another. They differ only in their tactics. The anarchists have
abandoned the way of liberating humanity which socialists would take to
accomplish this. I say : Believe no more in the ballot, and use all other
means at your command. Because we have done so we stand arraigned
here to-day — because we have pointed out to the people the proper way.
The anarchists are being hunted and persecuted for this in every clime,
but in the face of it all anarchism is gaining more and more adherents,
and if you cut off our opportunities of open agitation, then will all the
work be done secretly. If the state's attorney thinks he can root out
socialism by hanging seven of our men and condemning the other to fif-
teen years servitude, he is laboring under a very wrong impression. The
tactics simi)ly will be changed — that is all. No power on earth can rob
the workingman of his knowledge of how to make bombs— and that knowl-
edge he possessess. I do not wish for state's attorney Grinnell and his
assistant, Furthman, the fate of the Chief of Police Eumpff.
"If anarchism could be rooted out, it would have been accomplished
long ago in other countries. On the night on which the first bomb in this
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 89
t
country was thrown, I was in my apartments at home. I knew nothing of
the conspiracy which the state's attorney pretends to have discovered,
''It is true I am acquainted with several of my fellow defendants;
with most of them, however, but slightly, through seeing them at meet-
ings, and hearing them speak. Nor do I deny that I too have spoken at.
meetings, saying that, if every working man had a bomb in his pocket,
capitalistic nile would soon come to an end.
" That is my opinion, and my wish; it became my conviction, when I
mentioned the wickedness of the capitalistic conditions of the day.
" When hundreds of workingmen have been destroyed in mines in
consequence of faulty preparations, for the repairing of which the owners-
were too stingy, the capitalistic papers have scarcely noticed it. See with
what satisfaction and cruelty they make their report, when here and there-
workingmen have been fired upon, while striking for a few cents increase
in their wages, that they might earn only a scanty subsistence.
" Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights
only to the privileged classes, and none to the workers ? We have seea
but recently how the coal barons combined to form a conspiracy to raise
the price of coal, while at the same time reducing the already low wages
of their men. Are they accused of conspiracy on that account ? But
when workingmen dare ask an increase in tiieir wages, the militia and the
police are sent out to shoot them down. .
" For such a government as this I can feel no respect, and will com-
bat them despite their power, despite their police, despite their spies.
" I hate and combat, not the individual capitalist, but the system that
gives him those privileges. My greatest wish is that workingmen may
recognize who are their friends and who are their enemies.
"As to my conviction, brought about as it was, through capitalistic
influence, I have not one word to say.
Samuel Fielden on Socialism and Anarchism.
" I came to the United States in 1868. I have preached in Ohio, and
I came to Chicago in 1869. There are monuments of beauty, of stability,
and evidences of progress in the city of Chicago, and you can hardly go
through a street in this city that I have not dropped my sweat upon, that
had been produced by the labor of my hand. And just here let me tell
you that when the indictment had been procured against me and my
comrades here, it was accompanied by the statement that these men had
been deluding their dupes in order to make money out of them. When
the trial was in progress the only man who could have answered the
question as to whether we had made money out of our organization was
Zeller, the Secretary of the Central Labor Union, and when he was asked
the (question whether wo ever received any money for speaking and organ-
izing unions in that organization, the gentlemen who had been instrumental
in attaching that to the indictment in order to prejudice the people against.
us before the trial should come on against us — for there is nothing in the
'90 THE PHIHLOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
world that can prejudice a man so much as to be charged with having
imposed on some one for mercenary motives, and this is creditable to society
- — when the trial came on and this man who could have testified to that —
who could have substantiated it if it had been true — was asked the ques-
tion, each one of the gentlemen who were interested in its being proven
true for their side of the case at once sprang to their feet and objected to
the question being asked. We have been tried by a jury that have found
lis guilty. You will be tried by a juiy now that will find you guilty.
"Being of an inquiring disposition or turn of mind, and having
observed that there was something wrong in our social system, I attended
«ome meetings of workingmen and compared what they said with my own
observation. I knew there was something wrong. My ideas did not
become settled as to what was the remedy, but when they did I carried
the same energy and the same determination to bring about that remedy
that I had applied to ideas which I had possessed years before. There is
always a period in every individual's life when some sympathetic chord is
touched by some other person. That is the open sesame that carries con-
viction. The ground may have all been prepared. The evidence may all
have been accumulated, but it has not formed any shape. In fact, the
child has not been born. The new idea has not impressed itself thoroughly
when that sympathetic chord is touched, and the person is thoroughly
convinced of the truth of the idea. It was so in my investigation of
political economy. I knew there was something wrong, but I did not
know what the remedy was; but discussing the condition of things and the
different remedies one day, a person said to me that socialism meant
equal opportunities — and that was the touch. From that time I became
a socialist; I learned more and more what it was. I knew that I had
found the right thing; that I had found the medicine that was calculated
to cui'e the ills of society. Having found it I had a right to advocate it,
and I did. The constitution of the United States, when it says : * The
right of fi-ee speech shall not be abridged,' gives every man the right
to speak his thoughts. I have advocated the principles of socialism and
social economy, and for that and no other reason am I here, and is sen-
tence of death to be pronounced upon me ? What is socialism ? Taking
somebody else's property? That is what socialism is in the common
acceptation of the term. No. But if I were to answer it as shortly and
as curtly as it is answered by its enemies, I would say it is preventing
somebody else from taking your property. But socialism is equality. So-
cialism recognizes the fact that no man in society is responsible for what
he is; that all the ills that are in society are the production of poverty;
and scientific socialism says you must go to the root of the evil. There is
no criminal statistician in the world but will acknowledge that all crime,
when traced to its origin, is the product of poverty. It has been said that
it was inflammatory for me to say that the present social system degraded
men until they became mere animals. Go through this city into the low
lodging houses where men are huddled together into the smallest possible
space, living in an infernal atmosphere of death and disease, and I will
ask you to draw your silks and your broadcloths close to you when these
men pass you. Do you think that these men deliberately, with a full
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 91
knowledge of what they are doing, choose to become that class of animals ?
Not one of them. They are the products of conditions, of certain environ-
ments in which they were born, and which have impelled them resistlessly
into what they are. And we have this loadstone. You who wish it could
be taken from the shoulders of society. What is it ? When those men
were children, put them into an environment where they have the best
results of civilization around them, and they will never willfully choose a
condition like that. Some cynic might say that this would be a very nice
thing for these men. Society, with its rapidity of production of the means
of existence, is capable of doing that without doing injury to a single
individual ; and the great masses of wealth owned by individuals in this
and the old world have been produced in exactly the same proportion
as these men have been degraded — and they never could have been accu-
mulated in any other way. I do not charge that every capitalist willfully
and maliciously conspires to bring about these results; but I do charge
that it has been done, and I do charge that it is a very undesirable condition
of things, and I claim that socialism would cure the world of that ulcer.
These are my ideas in short, on socialism. The ultra patriotic sentiment
of the American people — and I suppose the same comparative sentiment
is felt in England and France and Germany — is that no man in this coun-
try need be poor. The class who are not poor think so. The class who
are poor are beginning to think differently; that under existing conditions
it is impossible that some people should not be poor.
"Why is it that we have * over-production?' And why is it that our
warehouses are full of goods, and our workshops have to shut up, and our
workmen are turned out on the highway because there is nothing to do ?
What is this tending to ? Let me show the change of conditions as shown
in Boston in forty years. Charles Dickens, a man of acute perceptions,
visited this country forty years ago, and he said that the sight of a beggar
in the streets of Boston at that time would have created as much conster-
nation as the sight of an angel with a drawn sword.
"A Boston paper in the winter of 1884-5 stated that there were some
quaiiiers in Boston where to own a stove was to be a comparative ai'isto-
crat. The poor people who lived in the neighborhood paid a certain sum
of money to rent the holes on the top of the stove that belonged to the
aristocrats. You see the change, and there is this comparative change in
the working classes of that city, and in every large city in the Union. It
is a noted fact that within the last twenty or thirty years the farms of this
country have been gradually going out of the possession of the actual cul-
tivators until to-day there is a little more than a quarter of the actual cul-
tivators of farms in this country who are renters ; and within twenty years
in the states of Iowa and Illinois the mortgages on farms have mcreased
thirty -three per cent of the actual value of the farms. Is it not enough to
make any thinking man ask if there is not something wrong somewhere?
Possibly it would be answered *yes, a man has a right to inquire whether
there is something wrong or not, but for God's sake, don't think that
socialism will do it any good, or if you do we will hang you! It is all
right to think, but we will punish you for your conclusions.' Parsons, in
his testimony, repeated what he had said at the haymarket on the night
92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF AJ^AKCHISM.
of May 4, when he stated that this was an American question, because the
patriotic tricksters who have been telling the people to worship the Amer-
ican flag, while they quietly put their hands in their pockets and robbed
them — they have said that this is merely a European question. It is an
American question, and the close contact of nations cemented by the facil-
ities of civilization, is bringing all the questions that affect one people to
affect all people equally all over the world. What affects the European
laborer and his employer affects the American laborer and his American
employer, and the relationship is the same between the two classes. In
the winter of 1884-5 one hundred and twenty American girls of fourteen
and sixteen years of age were driven from their homes by the shutting
down of the Merrimac mills in Connecticut, and they were compelled to
walk through the bleak New England hills and find refuge in out-houses
and hay-stacks, and numbers of them undoubtedly found their way to
lives of shame. And I say here and now that the man who can look upon
suffering like this and not feel stirred to do something to change such
conditions, has not got anything in his heart but the feelings of the tiger,
hungry for prey. In this city of Chicago children are working at very
tender ages. Going home one very cold night in the winter of 1884, two
little girls ran up to me and begged of me to go home with them. I
asked them why. They said: *A man down there has been offering us
money.' It was 7 o'clock at night and snowing; I asked them where they
had been so late. They said: *We have been working in such a store.'
Children, babies turned out from their mother's heart to make a living,
their fathers perhaps dead — in this case they were. The civilization that
will not and cannot support a widow so that she will not have to turn her
children out to such temptations as that is not worth respecting, and the
man who will not try to change it is no man.
"It is a known fact that there is no possibility of a young, unmarried
woman, who has not a brother or father to assist her, getting a living in
the city of Chicago, with a few exceptions. A friend of mine, a labor
agitator, was asked by a young lady to procure her a position. He went
to one of your large establishments, and they said: 'Yes, we can give her
a position, but she has got to dress tastily and nicely and neatly, and look
well, and we will give her from three to five dollars a week;' and you pro-
pose to get rid of these things by fining those who are compelled to resort
to such extremes to live. I tell you these things to show you that the
question is an American question. It is a question of the nineteenth
century.
Albert R. Parsons on Anarchy.
"In the effort of the prosecution to hold up our opinions to public
execration they lost sight of the charge of murder. Disloyalty to their
class, and their boasted civilization is in their eyes a far greater crime than
murder.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM. 93
"Anarchy, in the language of Grinnell, is simply a compound of rob-
bery, incendiarism and murder. This is the official statement of Mr.
Grinnell, and against his definition of anarchy I would put that of Mr.
Webster. I think that is pretty near as good authority as that gentle-
man's.
^' What is anarchy ? What is the nature of the dreadful thing — this
anarchy, for the holding of which this man says we ought to suffer death ?
"The closing hours of this trial, yes, for five days the representatives
of a privileged, usurped power and of despotism sought to belie, misrep-
resent, and vilify the doctrine in which I believe. Now, sir, let me speak
of that for a moment.
"What is anarchism? What is it — what are its doctrines?
"General Parsons — for which you are called upon to die.
"Mr. Parsons — For which I am called upon to die. First and fore-
most it is my opinion, or the opinion of an anarchist, that government is des-
potism; government is an organization of oppression, and law, statute law
is its agent. Anarchy is anti- government, anti-rulers, anti-dictators, anti-
bosses and drivers. Anarchy is the negation of force; the elimination of
all authority in social affairs; it is the denial of the right of domination of
one man over another. It is the diffusion of rights, of power, of duties,
equally and fi'eely among all the people.
" But anarchy, like many other words, is defined in Webster's dic-
tionary as having two meanings. In one place it is defined to mean,
* without rulers or governors.' In another place it is defined to mean, * dis-
order and confusion.' This latter meaning is what we call * capitalistic
anarchy,' such as is now witnessed in all portions of the world and especi-
ally in this court-room; the former, which means without rulers, is what
we denominate communistic anarchy, which will be ushered in with the
social revolution.
" Socialism is a term which covers the whole range of human progress
and advancement. Socialism is defined by Webster — I think I *have a
right to speak of this matter, because I am tried here as a socialist. I am
coiidonieiid as a socialist, and it has been of socialism that Grinnell and
these men had so much to say, and I think it right to speak before the
country, and be heard in my own behalf, at least. If you are going to put
me to death, then let the people know what it is for. Socialism is defined
by Webster as ' A theory of society which advocates a more precise, more
orderly, and more harmonious arrangement of the social relations of man-
kind that has hitherto prevailed.' Therefore everything in the line of
progi'ess, in civilization in fact, is socialistic. There are two distinct
phases of socialism in the labor movement throughout the world to-day.
One is known as anarchism, without political government or authority, the
other is known as state socialism or paternalism, or governmental control
of everything. The state socialist seeks to ameliorate and emancipate the
wage laborers by means of law, by legislative enactments. The state soc-
ialist] s demand the right to choose their own rulers. Anarchists would
have neither rulers nor law-makers of any kind. The anarchists seek the
same ends by the abrogation of law, by the abolition of all government,
94 ' THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
leaving the people free to unite or disunite as fancy or interest may dictate;
coercing no one, driving no party.
"Now, sir, we are supported in this position by a very distinguished
man indeed, no less a man than Buckle, the author of ' The History of
Civilization.' He states that there have been two opposing elements to the
progress of civilization of man. The first of these two is the church, which
commands what a man shall believe. And the other is the state, which
commands him what to do. Buckle says that the only good laws passed
in the last three or four hundred years have been laws that repealed other
laws. That is the view exactly of anarchists. Our belief is that all these
laws should be repealed, and that is the only good legislation that could
possibly take place.
" Now, law is license, and consequently despotic. A legal enactment
is simply something which authorizes somebody to do something for some-
body else that he could not do were it not for the statute. Now
then the statute is the divestment and the denial of the right of
another, and we hold that to.bo wrong; we consider that the invasion of a
man's natural right. Mark you, we do not object to all laws: The law
which is in accordance with nature is good. The Constitution of the
United States, when it guarantees me the right of free speech, a free press,
of unmolested assemblage, and the right of self-defense, why — your
Constitution of the United States is good, because it sanctions it. Why ?
Because it is in conformity with natural law. It don't require any statute
law to provide such a safeguard as that. That is inalienable, and it is a
natural right, inherited by the very fact of my existence, and the mere fact
that it is embraced in the Constitution does not make it any more sacred
at all. On the contrary it shows how foolish it is to do by constitution
that which kind mother nature has already freely and graciously done for
us. The more we are governed the less we are free. I do not believe
your honor will deny that.
" The law-abiding citizen — especially if he is called upon to do some-
thing, you understand, under a law that enslaves him, is an uncom-
plaining slave to the power that governs him. Imagine a chattel slave
down south .who was law-abiding, who was obedient; what does that
mean? That means he did not have any objections; he did not have
anything to say against the law that makes him another man's slave.
Now, the workingman to-day in this country who says nothing, who makes
no objection to any of these enactments, with no protest at all against
these infamous things that are practiced by legislation, that workingman
is a law-abiding, obedient workingman. He is a nice, quiet, peaceful,
genteel citizen.
"Anarchists are not that. kind. We object to those laws. Whether
the government consists of one over the million, or a million over one, an
anarchist is opposed to the rule of majorities as well as minorities. If a
man has a right, he has that right, whether that right is denied by a million
or by one. Right is right, and the majority that sets itself up to dic-
tate to minorities, they simply transform themselves into tyrants, they
become Usurpers; they deny the natural right of their fellow men. Now,
sir, this will put an end to the law factory business. What would become-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHI8M. 95
of your law-makers? Why a human law-maker, in my humble judgment,
is a human humbug. Yes, sir, and I believe that these law-factories that
we have throughout the country, the legislatures of our states and the
Union, where they manufacture laws just as we go to a factory to manu-
factui'e a pair of boots — why, your honor, the same pair of boots won't fit
every man; how can you make a law that will apply to the individnal cases
of each one '■
" Now, your honor, I suppose that you would hold, like they did in
the days of old — I don't know whether you will or not, but there are some
men who would hold that a man who would adhere to these kind of opin-
ions ought to die. That this world has got no use for him. Well, that
remains to be seen.
'' The natural and the imprescriptible right of all is the right of each
to control oneself. Anarchy is a free society where there is no concen-
trated or centralized power, no state, no king, no em*peror, no ruler, no
president, no magistrate, no potentate of any character whatever. Law is
the enslaving power of man. Blackstone defines the law to be a rule of
action. I believe that is it. Colonel Foster, I would like to ask your
opinion if that quotation is correct ? Blackstone describes the law to be a rule
of action, prescribing what is righ" and prohibiting what is wrong. Now,
very true. Anarchists hold that it Is wrong for one person to prescribe
what is the right action for another person, and then compel that person to
obey that rule. Therefore, right action consists in each person attending
to his business and allowing everybody else to do likewise.
" Whoever prescribes a rule of action for another to obey is a tyrant,
usurper, and an enemy of liberty. This is precisely what every statute does.
Anarchy is the natural law, instead of the man-made statute, and gives
men leaders in the place of drivers and bosses. All political law, statute
and common, gets its right to operate from the statute; therefore all
political law is statute law. A statute law is a written scheme by which
cunning takes advantage of the unsuspecting, and provides the induce-
ment to do so, and protects the one who does it. In other words, a
statute is the science of rascality, or the law of usurpation. If a few
sharks rob mankind of all the earth, turn them all out of house and home,
make them ragged slaves and beggars, and freeze and starve them to death,
still they are expected to obey the statute because it is sacred. This
ridiculous nonsense that human laws are sacred, and that if they are not
respected and continued we cannot prosper, is the stupidest and most
oriminal nightmare of the age. Statutes are the last and greatest curse
of man, and when destroyed the world will be free. The statute book is
a book of laws by which one class of people can safely trespass upon the
rights of another. Every statute law is always used to oppose some
natural law, or to sustain some other equally vicious statute. The statute
is the great science of rascality by which alone the few trample upon and
enslave the many. There are natural laws provided for every want of
man. Natural laws are self-operating. They punish all who violate
them, and reward all who obey them. They cannot be repealed, amended,
dodged or bribed, and it costs neither time, money nor attention to apply
them. It is time to stop legislating against tnem. We want to obey laws,
96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
)
not men, nor the tricks of men. Statutes are human tricks. The law —
the statute law — is the coward's weapon, the tool of the thief, and more —
the shield and buckler of every gigantic villany, and frightful parent of
all crimes. Every great robbery that was ever perpetrated upon a people
lias been by virtue of and in the name of law. By this tool of thieves the
great mass of the people who inhabit our planet have been robbed of
their equal right to the use of the soil and of all other natural opportu-
nities. In the name of this monster (statute law) large sections of our
race have been bought and sold as chattels; by it the vast majority of the
human race are to-day held in the industrial bondage of wage-slavery,
and in its name our fair earth has been times without number deluged in
human blood. By the instrumentality of this tool, cowards and thieves,
tyrants and usurpers, are robbing their fellows of their substance, despoil-
ing them of their natural rights, and depriving them of liberty. Man's
legal rights are everywhere in collision with man's natural rights; hence
the deep-rooted and wide-spread unrest of modern civilization. The only
sacred right of property is the natural right of the workingman to the
product, which is the creation of his labor. The legal right of the capi-
talist to rent and interest and profit is the absolute denial of the natural
right of labor. Free access to the means of production is the natural
right to labor. Free access to the means of production is the natural
right of every man able and willing to work. It is the legal right of the
capitalist to refuse such access to labor, and to take from the laborer
all the wealth he creates over and above a bare subsistence for allowing
him the privilege of working.
" A laborer has the natural right to life, and as life is impossible with-
out the means of production the equal right to life involves an equal
right to the means of production. The legal right of the capitalist is
virtually the assertion that one man has a greater right to life than
another man, since it denies the equality of natural conditions. Our
present social system, therefore, is based upon the legalization of robbery,
slavery and murder. The laborer who does not get more than a bare sub-
sistence as the fruit of his toil is robbed. The laborer who is forced to
beg for work, and has to accept it on any terms or starve, is a slave. The
laborer who, being unable to get work, but who in turn has too much
manhood to beg, steal or become a pauper, is by the refined process of
slow starvation murdered.
" Laws — just laws — natural laws — are not made, they are discovered.
Law enancting is an insult to divine intelligence, and law enforcing is the
impeachment of God's integrity and His power. I make, as an anarchist,
this declaration for the benefit of our christian ministry, who, while pro-
fessing loyalty for God's laws, never forget to pray and work for the
supremacy of man's laws and man's government. Those pious frauds
who profess their faith in the ' power ' of God, while they employ the
police, the militia and other armed hirelings to enforce their man-made laws
and maintain their 'power' over their fellow men. Oh, consistency,
indeed thou art a jewel! These hypocrites, who always did, and do to-
day, employ brute force to compel their fellow men to obey and serve
them, while they whine and snivel behind their sanctimonious masks about
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM. 97
their ' love for man and tlie power of God.' I hope some of them will
preach in their pulpits next Sunday morning on this topic.
""In the opinion of an anarchist, the sum total of human ills is
expressed in one word — authority. The economic regulates and controls
the social status of man; the mode and manner of procuring our liveli-
hood affects oui- whole life; the all-pervading cause is economic, not
political; moral or religious; and social institutions of every kind and de-
gree result from, grow out of, and are created by the economic or indus-
trial regulations of society. Every human being, consciously or imcon-
sciously, is affected and controlled by it in what they think, or say, or do.
There is no escape, no evasion from its consequences. It is logic. It is
cause and effect. Evil exists on every hand; the well-disposed, philan-
thropic, and generous, and the good, seek relief from these evil influences
by moral suasion, by self-denial, by religion, by politics, etc., etc., but in
vain, in vain! The evils remain, and not only remain, but grow worse and
worse. Why, if the fountain is corrupt, can the stream be pure ? If the
cause remains, must not the effects follow ? Jails, judges and executioners,
police, armies and navies, pestilence, misery and ignorance and debauch-
ery, and evils of all kinds of high and low degree, all flow from one
fountain. That flowing fountain of human woe is the economic or indus-
trial subjection and enslavement of man to man. Every human ill is
produced by the denial or violation of man's natural rights, or by the
neglect or refusal of man to conform his life to the requirement^ of.
nature. Wickedness, wretchedness, ignorance, vice, crime, poverty, are
the penalties which- nature inflicts upon her disobedient children. The
natural man is a happy man. He is virtuous and rich; truly so. Who-
ever violates the right of another, sooner or later punishes himself.
Nature is inexorable. From her penalty there is no escape. But in a court
of law — of so-called 'justice' — if you are a member of the Citizen's
Association, or if you have a big bank account, in other words, if you are
a member of the propertied class, you crawl out of anything you want to,
for law is for sale; that is to say, whoever can pui'chase the lawyers, stock
the jury and bribe the court can win. There is only one law for the
poor, to wit: Obey the rich.
"The existing economic system has placed on the markets for sale
man's natural rights. What are these rights ? Well, among the many I
will enumerate one or two. The right to live, for instance, is an inaliena-
ble right. So too, is the right to liberty and the pui'suit of happiness.
Now, how can I possess these rights and enjoy them, when the very con-
veniences of life and tjie means for their procurement are owned by and
belong to another ?
"Shakespeare makes Shylock say at the bar of the Venetian court,
* You do take my life when you take the means whereby I live,' Now, the
means of life are monopolized; the necessary means for the existence of
all has been appropriated and monopolized by a few. The land, the im-
plements of production and communication, the resources of life, are now
held as private property, and its owners exact tribute from the property-
less. In this way the privileged class become millionaires. They deny
the equal right of every one to freely use our natural inheritance, the
98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
earth. The denial of that right is death to whom it is denied. The right
to live is made a privilege by law, granted by law, which is granted or
denied by the possessor to the disposessed. Human righto are for sale, 'If
thou wilt not work, neither shaft thou eat,' says the scripture. This finds
immunity, however, among those who "can pay for it. Those who work
eat not; and those who eat worlr not. They do not have to; they hire
some hungry, poor devil to do the work for them. The hired man — the
hired man whom the capitalist press gloats on the idea of, and whom the
pious frauds declare is Uie dispensation of divine providence, whom we
will always have among us is a social fungus, the outgrowth of a rotten,
sorrupt industrial regime.
"In conclusion I will say, compulsion is slavery, and those disinher-
jited of their natural rights must hire out and serve and obey the oppress-
ing class or starve. There is no other alternative. Some things are
priceless, chief among which are life and liberty. A freeman is not for sale
or for hire.
"You accuse the anarchists of using or advising the use of force; it
is false. 'Out of your own mouth you stand condemned.' The present
existing state of society is based upon and maintained by and' perpetuated
by force. This capitalistic system that we have to-day would not exist
twenty- four hours if it were not held together by the bayonets and the
clubs of the militia and police. No, sir, it would not ! Now, sir, we object
to this. We protest against it. But you accuse us, or the prosecution
here accuses us, of that very thing which they themselves are guilty of.
It is the old, old _story of ^sop's fable, the lamb standing in the water
and the wolf above him; he looks up; the water has run down, the wolf
stands above him; he looks down toward the lamb, and says he, 'Ho,
there! you are making the water muddy.' The lamb observes, 'My
friend, I am below you in the stream.' 'That don't matter; you are my
meat, anyhow.' And he goes for him and eats him up. That is just the
way of the capitalist toward the anarchist. You are doing the veiy thing
you accuse us of, and against which we protest. Now any institution that
is based upon force is self -condemned; it does not need any argument, in
my opinion, to show it.
"The political economy that prevails was written to justify the taking
of somxething for nothing; it was written to hide the blushes of the rich
when they look into the faces of the poor. These are they who brand
anarchy as a compound of 'incendiarism, robbery and murder;' these are
they who despoil the people; they love power and hate equality; they who
dominate, degrade and exploit their fellow men, they who employ brute
force, violence and wholesale murder, to perpetuate and maintain their
privileges.
"This labor question is not a question of emotion; the labor question
is not a question of sentiment; it is not a religious matter; it is not a polit-
ical problem ; no, sir, it is a stern economic fact, a stubborn and immova-
ble fact. It has, it is true, its emotional phase; it has its sentimental,
religious, political aspects, but the sum total of this question is the bread
and butter question, the how and wherefore we will live and earn our
daily bread. And until the right of existence is settled upon the basis of
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 99
•
equal and perfect liberty to all, there will never be peace among men.
This is the labor movement. It has a scientific basis. It is founded upon
fact.
"Labor is a commodity and wages is the price paid for it. The
owner of this commodity — of labor — sells it, that is himself, to the owner
of capital in order to live. Labor is the expression of energy, the power
of the laborer's life. This energy of power he must sell to another person
in order to live. It is his only means of existence. He works to live, but
his work is not simply a part of his life; it is the sacrifice of it. His labor
is a commodity which under the guise of free labor, he is forced by neces-
sity to hand over to another party. The reward of the wage laborer's
activity is not the product of his labor — far from it. The silk he weaves,
the palace he builds, the ores he digs from out the mines — ar^ not for him
— oh, no. The only thing he produces for himself is his wage, and the
silk, the ores and the palace which he has built are simply transformed for
him into a certain kind of means of existence, namely, h cotton shirt, a
few pennies, and the mere tenantcy of a lodging-house, in other words,
his wages represent the bare necessities of his existence, t^nd the unpaid-
for or 'surplus' portion of his labor product constitutes the vast super-
abundant wealth of the non-producing or capitalise class. That is
the capitalist system. It is the capitalist system that creates these
classes, and it is these classes that produces this conilict. This conflict
intensifies as the power of the privileged classes over the non- possessing
or propertyless classess increases and intensifies, and T.his power increases
as the idle few become richer and the producing many become poorer, and
this produces what is called the labor movement. Wealth is power, pov-
erty is weakness. If I had time I might answer some suggestions that
probably arise in the minds of some persons not familiar with this ques-
tion. I imagine I hear your honor say, 'Why, labor is free. This is a
free country.' Now, we had in the southern states for nearly a century a
form of labor known as chattel slave labor. That has been abolished, and
I hear you say that labor is free; that the war has resulted in establishing
free labor all over America. Is this true ? Look at it. The chattel slave
of the i)ast — the wage slave of to-day; what is the difference? The mas-
ter selected under chattel slavery his own slaves. Under the wage slavery
system the wage slave selects his master.
"Formerly the master selected the slave; to-day the slave selects his
master and he has got to find one or else he is carried down here to my friend,
the goaler, and occupy a cell along side of myself. He is compelled to find
one. So the change of the industrial system, in the language of Jefferson
Davis, ex-president of the southern confederacy, in an interview with the
New York Herald upon the question of the chattel slave system of the
south and that of the so-called ' free laborer,' and their wages — Jefferson
Davis has stated positively that the change was a decided benefit to the
former chattel slave owners who would not exchange the new system of
wage labor at all for chattel labor, because now the dead had to bury them-
selves and the sick take care of themselves, and now they don't have to
employ overseers to look after them. They give them a task to do- a cer-
tain amount to do. They say: 'Now, here, perform this piece of work
100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
in a certain length of time,' and if you don't (under the wage system, says
Mr. Davis), why, when you come around for your pay next Saturday, you
simply find in the envelope containing your money, a note which
informs you of the fact that you have been discharged. Now, Jefferson
Davis admitted in his statement that the leather thong dipped in salt
brine, for the chattel slave, had been exchanged under the wage slave
system for the lash of hunger, an empty stomach and the ragged back of
the wage-slave, who, according to the census of the United States
for 1880, constitute more than nine-tenths of our entire population. But
you say the wage slave has advantage over the chattel slave. The chattel
slave couldn't get away fi'om it. Well, if we had the statistics, I believe
it could be shown that as many chattel slaves escaped fi'om bondage with
the bloodhounds of their masters after them as they tracked their way
over the snow-beaten rocks of Canada, and via the underground grapevine
road — I believe the statistics would show to-day that as many chattel
slaves escaped from their bondage under that system as could, and as many
as do escape to-day from wage bondage into capitalistic liberty. I am
a socialist, I am one of those, although myself a wage slave, who
holds that it is wrong, wrong to myself, wrong to my neighbor and unjust
to my fellowmen, for me, wage slave that I am, to undertake to make
my escape from wage slavery by becoming a master. I refuse to do it, I
refuse equally to be a slave or the owner of slaves. Had I chosen another
path in life, I might be upon the avenue of the city of Chicago to-day,
surrounded in my beautiful home with luxury and ease and slaves to do
my bidding. But I chose the other road, and instead I stand here to-day
upon the scaffold. Tnis is my crime. Before high heaven this and this
alone is my crime. I have been false, I have been untrue, and I am a
traitor to the infamies that exist to-day in capitalistic society. If this is
a crime in your opinion I plead guilty to it. Now, be patient with me; I
have been with you, or rather, I have been patient with this trial. Follow
me, if you please, and look at the impressions of this capitalistic system of
industry. Every new machine that comes into existence comes there as a
competitor with the man of labor. Every machine under the capitalistic
system that is introduced into industrial affairs comes as a competitor, as
a drag and menace and a prey to the very existence of those who have to
sell their labor in order to earn their bread. The man is turned out to
starve and whole occupations and pursuits are revolutionized and com-
j)letely destroyed by the introduction of machinery, in a day, in an hour as
it were. I have known it to be the case in the history of my own life —
and I am yet a young man — that whole pursuits and occupations have
been wiped out or revolutionized by the invention of machinery.
" What becomes of these people ? Where are they? Tens of thous-
ands are thrown out of employment, and they become competitors of other
laborers and are made to reduce wages and increase the work hours.
Many of them are candidates for the gibbet, they are candidates for your
prison cells. Buld more penitentiaries ; erect new scaffolds, for these men
are upon the highway of crime, of misery, of death. Your honor, there
never was an effect without a cause. The tree is known by its fruit.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AKAKCEklM. 101
Socialists are r:ot those who blindly close their eyes and refuse to look, .
and who refuse to hear, but having eyes to see, they see, and having ears to
hear, they hear. Look at this capitalistic system ; look at its operation upon
the small dealers, the middle class. Bradstreefs Commercial Statistics
tells us in last year s report that there were 11,000 small businessmen
financially destroyed the past twelve months. What became of those peo-
ple ? Where are they, and why have they been wiped out ? Has there
been any less wealth ? No ; that which they had possessed has simply trans-
ferred itself into the hands of some other person. Who is that other ? It
is he who has greater capitalistic facilities. It is the monopolist, the man
who can run comers, who can create rings and squeeze these men to death
and wipe them out like dead flies from the table into his monopolistic
basket. The middle classes, destroyed in this manner, join the ranks of the
proletariat. They bocome what? They seek out the factory gate, they
seek in the various occupations of wage labor for employment. What is
the result ? Then there are more men upon the market. This increases
the number of those who are applying for employment. What then ? This
intensifies the competition, which in turn creates. greater monopolists, and
with it wages go down until the starvation point is reached, and then what ?
" Socialism comes to the people and asks them to look into this thing,
to discuss it, to reason, to examine it, to investigate it, to know the facts,
because it is by this, and this alone, violence will be prevented and blood-
shed will be avoided, because, as my friend here has said, men in their
blind rage, in their ignorance, not knowing what ails them, knowing that
they are hungry, that they are miserable and destitute, strike blindly, and
do as they did with Maxwell here, and fight the labor-saving machinery.
Imagine such an absurd thing, and yet the capitalistic press has taken
great pains to say that socialists do these things; that we fight machinery;
that we fight j^overty. Why, sir, it is an absui-dity ; it is ridiculous ; it is
prex>osterous. No man ever heard an utterance from the mouth of a
socialist to advise anything of the kind. They know to the contrary. W^e
don't fight machinery; we don't oppose these things. It is only the man-
ner and methods of employing it that we object to. That is all. It is
the manipulation of these things in the interests of a few; it is the monopo-
lization of them that we object to. W^e desire that all the forces of nature,
all the forces of society, of the gigantic strength which has resulted fi'om.
the combined intellect and labor of the ages of the past shall be turned
over to man, and made his servant, his obedient slave forever. This is the
object of socialism. It asks no one to give up anything. It seeks no
harm to anybody. But, when we witness this condition of things, when
we see little children huddling around the factory gates, the poor little
things whose bones are not yet hard; when we see them clutched from
the hearthstone, taken from the family altar, and carried to the bas-
tiles of labor and their little bones ground up into gold dust to
bedeck the form of some aristocratic Jezebel, then it stirs me and I speak
out. We plead for the little ones: we plead for the helpless; we plead
for the oppressed, we seek redress for those who are wronged; we
seek knowledge and intelligence for the ignorant; we seek liberty
for the slave; socialism secures the welfare of every human being.
lOii'^ i t^'^i ^S' ' ■^l:: T^B PQIX>OSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
" The evil effects of our existing social system naturally flow from
the established social relations, which are founded upon the economic
subjection and dependence of the man of labor to the monopolizer of the
means of labor — the resources of life. All the ills that afflict society-
social miseries, mental degradations, political dependence — all result from
the economic subjection and dependence of the man of labor upon the
monopolizer of the means of existence; and as long as ibhe cause remains
the effect must certainly follow. Seventy-five per cent, of the farms of
America are to-day under mortgage. The man who a few years ago
owned the soil that he worked, is to-day a tenant at will. A mortgage is
placed upon his soil, and when he, the farmer whose hand tickles the
earth and causes it to blossom as the rose and bring forth its rich fruits for
human sustenance — even while this man is asleep the interest upon the
mortgage continues. It grows and it increases, rendering it more and
more difficult for him to get along or make his living. In the meantime
the railway corporations place upon the traffic all that the market will
bear. The board of trade sharks run their corners until — what? Until
it occurs, as stated in the Chicago Tribune about three months ago, that a
freight train of corn from Iowa consigned to a commission merchant in
Chicago, had to be sold for less than the cost of freight. The freightage
upon that com was three dollars more than the corn brought in the mar-
ket. So it is with the tenant farmers of America. Your honor, we do
not have to go to Ireland to find the evils of landlordism. We do not
have to cross the Atlantic ocean to find Lord Leitrim's rackrenters — land-
lords who evict their tenants. We have them all around us. There is
Ireland right here in Chicago and everywhere else in this country. Look
at Bridgeport where the Irish live! Look! Tenants at will, huddled to-
gether as State's Attorney Grinnell calls them, like rats; living as they do
in Dublin, living precisely as they do in Limerick — taxed to death, unable
to meet the extortions of the landlord.
"We were told by the prosecution that law was on trial; that govern-
ment was on trial ; that anarchy was on trial. That is what the gentle-
men on the other side stated to the jury. The law is on trial, and
government is on trial. Well, up to near the conclusion of this trial we,
the defendants, supposed that we were indicted and being tried for mur-
der. Now, if the law is on trial, and the government is on trial, and
anarchy is on trial, who has placed it upon trial ? And I leave it to the
people of America whether the prosecution in this case have made out a
case; and I charge it here now frankly that in order to bring about this
conviction the prosecution, the representatives of the state, the sw^orn offi-
cers of the law, those whose obligation it is to the people to obey the law
and preserve order— I charge upon them a willful, a malicious, a pur-
posed violation of every law which guarantees every right to every Ameri-
can citizen. They have violated fi'ee speech. In the prosecution of this
case they have violated a free press. They have violated the right of
public assembly. Yea, they have even violated and denounced the right
of self-defense. I charge the crime home to them. These great blood-
bought rights, for which our forefathers spent centuries of struggle, they
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 108
have violated and betrayed and we, who defend these rights, it is
attempted to run like rats into a hole by the prosecution in this
case. Why, gentlemen, law is upon trid; government is upon trial,
indeed. Yea, they are themselves guilty of the precise thing of which
they accuse me. They say that I am an anarchist, and refuse to respect the
law. 'By their works ye shall know them,' and out of their own mouths
they stand condemned. They are the real anarchists in this case, while
we stimd upon the constitution of the United States. I have violated no
law of this country. Neither I nor my colleagues here have violated any
legal right of American citizens. >Ve stand upon the right of free speech,
fi-ee press, of public assemblage, unmolested and undistui'bed. We stand
upon the constitutional right of self-defense, and we defy the prosecution
to rob the people of America of these dearly bought rights. But the
prosecution imagines that they have triumphed because they propose
to put to death seven men. Seven men to be exterminated in violation of
law, because they insist upon the rights guaranteed them by the constitu-
tion. Seven men are to be exterminatad because they demand the right
of free speech and t^xercise it. Seven men by this court of law are to be
put to death because they claim their right of self-defense. Do you think,
gentlemen of the prosecution, that you will have settled the case when
you are carrying my lifeless bones to the potter's field ? Do you think
that this trial will be settled by my strangulation and that of my col-
leagues ? I tell you that there is a greater verdict yet to be heard from.
The American people will have something to say about this attempt
to destroy their rights, which they hold sacred. The American people
will have something to say as to whether or not the Constitution of
the United States can be trampled under foot at the dictation of
monopoly.
^ ^ 'F »!t
*'We are charged with being the enemies of 'law and order,' as
breeders of strife and confusion. Every conceivable bad name and evil
design was imputed to us by the lovers of power and haters of freedom
and equality. Even the workingmen in some instances, caught the infec-
tion and many of them joined in the capitalistic hue and cry against the
anarchists. Being satisfied of ourselves that our purpose was a just one,
we worked on undismayed, willing to labor and to wait, for time and
events to justify our cause. We began to allude to ourselves as anarchists
and that name which was at first imputed to us as a dishonor, we came to
cherish and defend with ])ride. What's in a name? But names some-
times express ideas; and ideas are everything. What, then, is our offense,
being anarchists ? The word anarchy is derived from the two Greek words
an, signifying no, or without, and arche, government; hence anarchy
means no government. Consequently anarchy means a condition of society
which has no king, emperor, president or riiler of any kind. In other
words ararchy is the social administration of all affairs by the people
themselves; that is to say, self-government, individual liberty. Such a
condition of society denies the right of majorities to rule over or dictate to
minorities. Though every person in the world agree upon a certain j^lan
and only one objection thereto, the objector would, under anarchy, be
104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
respected in his natural right to go his own way ? And when such person
is thus held responsible by all the rest for the violation of the inherent
right of any one how th^n can injustice flourish or right triumph ? For
the greatest good to the greatest number anarchy substitutes the equal
right of each and every one. The natural law is all sufficient for every
purpose, every desire and every human being. The scientist then becomes
the natural leader, and is accepted as the only authority among men.
Whatever can be demonstrated will by self interest be accepted, otherwise
rejected. The great natural law of power derived alone from association
and co-operation will of necessity and from selfishness be applied by the
people in the production and distribution of wealth, and what the trades
unions and labor organizations seek now to do, but are prevented from
doing because of obstructions and coercions, will under perfect liberty —
anarchy — come easiest to hand. Anarchy is the extension of the bounda-
ries of liberty until it covers the whole range of the wants and aspirations
of man — not men, but man.
"Power is might, and might always makes its own right. Thus in
the very nature of things, might makes itself right whether or no. Gov-
ernment, therefere, is the agency or power by which some person or per-
sons govern or rule other persons, and the inherent right to govern is found
wherever the power or might to do so is manifest. In a natural state,
intelligence of necessity control ignorance, the strong the weak, the good
the bad, etc. Only when the natural law operates is this true, however.
On the other hand when the statute is substituted for the natural law, and
government holds sway, then, and only then, power centers itself into the
hands of a few, who dominate, dictate, rule, degrade and enslave the many.
The broad distinction and irreconcilable conflict between wage laborers
and capitalists, between those who buy labor or sell its products, and the
wage-worker who sells his labor (himself) in order to live, arises from the
social institution called government; and the conflicting interests, the total
abolition of warring classes, and the end of domination and exploitation of
man by man is to be found only in a free society, where all and each are
equally free to unite or disunite, as interest or inclination may incline.
The anarchists are the advance guard in the impending social revolution.
They have discovered the cause of the world-wide discontent which is felt
but net yet understood by the toiling millions as a whole. The effort now
being made by organized and unorganized labor in all countries to par-
ticipate in the making of laws which they are forced to obey will lay bare
to them the secret source of their enslavement to capital. Capital is a
thing — it is property. Capital is the stored up, accumulated savings of
past labor, such as machinery, houses, food, clothing, all the means of
production (both natural and artificial) of transportation and communication
— in short the resources of life, the means of subsistence. These things
are, in a natural state, the common heritage of all for the free use of all,
and they were so held until their forcible seizure and appropriation by a
few. Thus the common heritage of all seized by violence and fraud, was
afterwards made the ])roperty — capital — of the usurpers, who erected a
government and enacted lawr> to perpetuate and maintain their special
privileges. The function, the only function of capital is to appropriate or
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 105
conliscate the labor product of the propertyless, non-possessing class, the
wage -workers. The origin of government was in violence and murder.
Government disinherits and enslaves the governed. Government is for
slaves; fi*ee men govern themselves. Law — statute — man-made law, is
license. Anarchy — natural law — is liberty. Anarchy is the cessation of
force. Government is the rulership or control of man by men, in the
name of law— by means of statute law — ^whether that control be by one
man (w/on-arche) or by a majority (mo6-arche). The effort of the wage-
slaves (now being made) to participate in the making of laws will enable
them to discover for the first time that a human law-maker is a human
humbug. That laws, true, just and perfect laws, are discovered, not
made. The law-making class — the capitalists — will object to this; they
(the capitalists) will remonstrate, they will fight, they will kill, before they
permit laws to be made, or repealed, which deprives them of their power
to rule and rob. This fact is demonstrated in every strike which threatens
their power; by every lock-out, by every discharge, by every black-list.
Their exercise of these powers is based upon force, and every law, every
government in the last analysis is resolved into force. Therefore, when
the workers, as they are now everywhere preparing to do, insist upon and
demand a participation in, or application of democratic })rinciples in
industrial affairs, think you the request will be conceded? Nay, nay.
The right to live, to equality of opportunity, to liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, is yet to be acquired by the producers of all wealth. The
Knights of Labor unconsciously stand upon a state socialist programme.
They w^l never be able to seize the state by ballot, but when they do seize
it (and seize it they must) they will abolish it. Legalized capital and the
state stand or fall together. They are twins. The liberty of labor makes
the state not only unnecessary, but impossible. When the people — the
whole people — become the state, that is, participate equally in governing
themselves, the state of necessity ceases to exist. Then what ? Leaders,
natural leaders, take the place of the overthrown rulers; liberty takes
the place of statute laws, of license ; the people voluntarily associate
or freely withdraw from association, instead of being bossed or
driven, as now. They unite and disunite, when, where, and as they
please. Social administration is substituted for governmentalism, and
self-preservation becomes the actuating motive, as now, minus the dicta-
tion, coercion, driving and domination of man by man. Do you say
this is a dream? That it is the millenium? Well, the crisis is near
at hand. Necessity, which is its own law, will force the issue. Then
whatever is most natural to do will be the easiest and best to do. The
workshops will drop into the hands of the workers, the mines will fall to
the miners, and the land and all other things will be controlled by those
who possess and use them. There will be, there can then be no title to any-
thing aside from its possession and use. Drily the statute law and govern-
ment stand to-day as a ban-ierto this result, and all efforts to change them
failing, will inevitably result in their total abolition.
"Anarchy, therefore, is liberty; is the negation of force, or compul-
sion, or violence. It is the precise reverse of that which those who hold
and love power would have their oppressed victims believe it is.
106 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
'• Anarchists do not advocate or advise the use of force. Anarchists
disclaim and protest against its use, and the use of force is justifiable only
when employed to repel force. Who, then, are the aiders, abettors and
users of force? Who are the real revolutionists? Are they not those
who hold and exercise power over their fellows ? They who use clubs and
bayonets, prisons and scaffolds ? The great class conflict now gathering
throughout the world is created by our social system of industrial slavery.
Capitalists could not if they would, and would not if they could, change
it. This alone is to be the work of the proletariat, the disinherited, the
wage-slave, the sufferer. Nor can the wage-class avoid this conflict.
Neither religion or politics can solve it or prevent it. It comes as a hu-
man, an imperative necessity. Anarchists do not make the social revolu-
tion; they prophesy its coming. Shall we then stone the prophets?
Anarchists do not use or advise the use of force, but point out that force
is ever employed to uphold despotism to despoil man's natural rights.
Shall we therefore kill and destroy the anarchists ? And capital shouts,
* Yes, yes ! exterminate them ! '
'' In the line of evolution and historical development, anarchy — ^lib-
erty— is next in order. With the destruction of the feudal system,
and the birth of commercialism and manufactories in the sixteenth cen-
tury, a contest long and bitter and bloody, lasting over a hundred years,
was waged for mental and religious liberty. The seventeenth and eight-
eenth centuries, with their sanguinary conflicts, gave to man political
equality and civil liberty, based on the monopolization of the resources of
life, capital — with its ' free laborers ' — freely competing with one another
for a chance to serve king capital, and ' free competition ' among capi-
talists in their endeavors to exploit the laborers and monopolize the labor
products. All over the world the fact stands undisputed that the political
is based upon, and is but the reflex of the economic system, and hence we
find that whatever the political form of the government, whether mon-
archial or republican, the average social status of the wage-workers is in
every country identical. The class struggle of the past century is history
repeating itself; it is the evolutionary growth preceding the revolutionary
denoument. Though liberty is a growth, it is also a birth, and while it is
yet to be, it is also about to be born. Its birth will come through travail
and pain, through bloodshed and violence. It cannot be prevented. This,
because of the obstructions, impediments and obstacles which servo as a
barrier to its coming. An anarchist is a believer in liberty, and as I would
control no man against his will, neither shall any one rule over me with
my consent. Government is compulsion; no one freely consents to be
governed by another, therefore there can be no just power of government.
Anarchy is perfect liberty, is absolute freedom of the individual. Anarchy
has no schemes, no programmes, no systems to offer or to substitute for
the existing order of things. Anarchy would strike fi'om humanity every
chain that binds it, and say to mankind: ' Go forth! you are free! Have
all; enjoy all! '
"Anarchism or anarchists neither advise, abet nor encourage the
working people to the use of force or a resort to violence. Wo do not say
to the wage-slaves: 'You ought, you should use force.' No. Why say
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM. 107
this when we know they must — they will be driven to use it in self-de-
fense, in self-preservation, against those who are degrading, enslaving and
destroying them.
" Already the millions of workers are unconsciously anarchists. Im-
pelled by a cause, the effects of which they feel but do not wholly under-
stand, they move unconsciously, irresistibly forward to the social revolu-
tion. Mental freedom, political equality, industrial liberty!
" This is the natural order of things, the logic of events. Who so
foolish as to quarrel with it, obstruct it, or attempt to stay its progress ? It
is the march of the inevitable; the triumph of progress."
Paksons' Plea for Anakchy.
[From the N. Y. Herad^ August 30, 1886.]
" So much is written and said nowadays about socialism or anarchism,
that a few words on this subject from one who holds to these doctrines
may be of interest to the readers of your great newspaper.
"•Anarchy is the perfection of personal liberty or self-government
It is the free play of nature's law, the abrogation of the statute. It
is the negation of force or the domination of man by man. In the
place of the law maker it puts the law discoverer and for the dri-
ver, or dictator, or ruler, it gives free play to the natural leader. It leaves
man free to be happy or miserable, to be rich or poor, to be mean or good.
The natural law is self-operating, self-enacting, and cannot be repealed,
amended or evaded without incurring a self-imposed penalty. The statute
law is license. Anarchy is liberty. The socialistic or anarchistic pro-
gramme leaves the people perfectly free to unite or disunite for the pur-
pose of production and consumption. It gives absolute freedom of con-
tract by and between individuals or associations, and places the means
of life — capital — at the disposal of the people. To those persons who
may regard these aspirations as merely sentimental or Utopian, I invite
their attention to the operation of our capitalistic system, as outlined by
Marx and others.
" The capitalist system originated in the forcible seizure of natural
opportunities and rights by a few, and converting these things into special
privileges, which have since become vested rights formally entrenched be-
hind the bulwarks of statute law and government. Capital could not
exist unless there also existed a class, a majority class, who are property-
less — that is, without capital. A class whose only mode of existence is by
selling their labor to capitalists. Capitalists maintained, fostered and
perj'etuated by law. In fact, capital is law, statute law, and law is
capital.
" Labor is a commodity, and wages is the price paid for it. The
owner of the commodity, labor, sells it (himself) to the owner
of caj)ital in order to live. Labor is the expression of the energy
or power of the laborer's life. This energy or power he must sell
to another person in order to live. It is his only means of
108 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
existence. He works to live. But his work is not simply a part
of his life. On the contrarj^, it is the sacrifice of it. It is a commodity
which under the guise of ' free labor ' he is forced by necessity to hand
over to another party. The aim of the wage laborer's activity is not the
product of his labor. Far from it. The silk he weaves, the palace
he builds, the ores he digs from out the mine are not for him. The only
thing he produces for himself is his wage, and silk, ores and palace are
merely transformed for him into a certain quantity of means of existence
— viz: a cotton shirt, a few pennies and the mere tenancy of a lodging
house.
" And what of the laborer who for twelve or more hours weaves, spins
bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stones, caiTies loads, and so on ? Does
his twelve hours weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building, shoveling,
etc., represent the active expression or energy of his life? On the con-
trary, life begins for him exactly where this activity, this labor of his
ceases — viz: at his meals, in his tenement house, in his bed. His twelve
hours work represents for him as a weaver, builder, spinner, etc., only so
much earnings as will furnish him his meals, clothes and rent. Capital ever
grows with what it feeds on — viz : the life, the very existence, the flesh and
blood of the men, women and children of toil. The wage slaves are ' free '
to compete with each other for the oppoi-tunity to serve capital and capi-
talists to compete with each other in monopolizing the laborer's products.
This law of ' free ' competition establishes the iron law of subsistence wages.
Thus in every country the average wage of the working people is regulated
by what it takes to maintain a bare subsistence and perpetuate their class.
*' The increase of capital grows with every stroke of the laborers. So
does his dependence. To-day there are but two classes in the world — to
wit: the capitalist class and the wage class; the latter a hereditary serv-
ing class, dependent upon the former for work and bread; the former a
dictating class, dominating and exploiting the latter.
" The struggle of classes, the conflict between capital and labor is for
possession of the labor product of the laborers. As profits rise wages fall,
and as wages rise profits fall. As the ^^hare of the capitalist (his profit)
increases, the share of the laborer (his wages) diminishes, and the interest
of the capitalist class is in direct antagonism to the interests of the wage
class. Profit and wages for every class are in inverse proportion. Wage
laborers are doomed by the capitalist system to forge for themselves the
golden chains which bind them more securely in industrial slavery. Thus
the industrial war wages — to wit: the captains and generals of industry
contest with each other as to who can dispense with the greatest number
of industrial soldiers. This brings on a rapid sub- division and simplifi-
cation of the productive process, the employment of women and children,
and the introduction of labor-saving machinery. Eesult, surplus laborers.
" The United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics tells us in last
year's report that over one million able-bodied men were in compulsory
idleness, and that the general average of wages for the whole wage class
was estimated at fifty-five cents per day. As the stmggle for existence
intensifies among the laborers the struggle among capitalists for profits
intensifies also. The crisis ? \\Tiat is it ? When the dead level of cost
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHI8M. 109
of production is reached, which is near if not already at hand — the capi-
talist system — being no longer able to preserve the lives of its slaves — the
wage workers — will collapse, will fall of its own weight, and fail because
of its own weakness. Modern enterprise and commercialism is the old-
time piracy of our fathers legalized, made respectable and safe. The
homeless, the destitute, hungry and ragged, and ignorant and miserable,
are the victims, the creatures, the offspring, the product of our modern
system of legalized piracy. The capitalist system has its morality — a
plastic, convenient morality — which it puts on or off like a coat.
" The golden rule of the carpenter's son is made subservient to the
laws of trade, whoso morality and religion are expounded in the churches
(temples of Mammon) where the clergy propagate that good philosophy
which teaches man (poor man) . that he is here to suffer, denouncing as
atheistic and anarchistic that other philosophy which says to man : * Go !
the earth is the gift of God to the whole human race. Discover nature's
laws, apply them and be happy.'
" To quarrel with socialism is silly and vain. To do so is to quarrel
with history; to denounce the logic of events; to smother the aspirations
of liberty. Mental freedom, political freedom, industrial freedom — do
not these follow in the line of progress ? Are they not the association of
the inevitable ? A. R. Parsons."
Lucy E. Paksons on Anarchy.
[We are frequently asked, ' what is anarchy and what do the anarchists
want?' We are free to confess that in all we have read and heard from anarchists
about how they expected to attain their ends, we never read or heard just what
those ends were. In an interview with the New York Worlds Mrs. Lucy E. Par-
sons, the well-known lecturess in this new school of social economy, gave the most
succinct account we have ever seen; and in answer to the question, 'what is
anarchy,' reprint the interview. — Editor Knights of Labor, Cliicago.]
" In reply to the reporter's inquiry as to the prospects of anarchy in
this country and the world in general, the woman anarchist dropped her
eyes for a moment in deep thought and said:
'''This is the evolutionary stage of anarchism. The revolutionary
period will be reached when the great middle classes are practically extinct.
The great monopolies and cbrporations and syndicates met with on every
hand are now rapidly extinguishing the middle classes, which we regard
as the one great l3ulwark between the monopoly or wealthy class and the
gi'oat producing or working class. There will come a time when there
will be in this world only two classes— the possessing class and the non-
possessing l)ut producing class, the middle classes have been forced into
the wage, class, owing to the enormous capital now needed to remain in
the field of production. These two classes will therefore find themselves
l^rrayed against each other; a struggle, the revolutionary' stage will come
110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
and the order of things in the world will be changed by the people them-
selves'.
" 'Will the change come peaceably?'
"'I think not, for all history shows that every attempt to wrest from
the wealthy and powerful that which they have, has been made by force.
The vanguard of this struggling army will be found in America, because
Americans will never submit to being forced to the conditions of the
European masses. All the signs of the times show that the fight will
begin here. Witness the strikes without number that have swept up and
down this broad land like a grand cyclone. Millionaires are made here in
one generation, whereas it takes centuries in Europe, and that is a fact that
proves that Americans will respond to tjuo k.^^± me quicker. The wage
system in this country has now reached its full development. It no longer
satisfies the needs and wants r.nd aspirations of the people, facts which
are illustrated by the poverty and starvation to be met with in the midst
of plenty.'
"'When this struggle comes and culminates in the sovereignty of the
people, what then ? What sort of a state will follow under anarchism ?'
"'Well, first let us look at the derivation of anarchy. It means with
out rule. We pre-suppose that the wage system has been abolished.
There wage -slavery ends and anarchy begins, but you musn't confuse this
state with the revolutionary period, as people are in the habit of doing.
We hold that the granges, trade-unions, Knights of Labor assemblies,
etc., are the embryonic groups of the ideal anarchistic society. Under
anarchy the different groups, including all the industrial trades, such as
the farmer, the shoemaker, the printer, the painter, the hatter, the cigar-
maker, etc., will maintain themselves apart and distinct from the whole.
We ask for the decentralization of power from the central government
into the groups or classes. The farmers will supply so much of the land
products, the shoemaker so many shoes, the hatters so many hats, and so
on, all of them measui'ing the consumption by statistics which will be accu-
rately compiled and published. Land will be in common, and there will
be no rent, no interest and no profit. Therefore there will be no Jay
Goulds, no Vanderbilts, no corporations and no moneyed power.
'"Drudgery, such as exists to-day will be reduced to a minimum.
The children will be taken fi*om the factories and sent to museums and
schools. The number of hours of labor will be reduced, and people will
have more time for pleasui*e and cultivation of the mind. We base all
these results on natural reasons, believing that nature has implanted in
every man, in common with all his fellows, certain instincts and certain
capacities. If a man won't work nature makes him starve, so in our
state, you must work or starve. But we claim that the sum of human
happiness will be increased, while the drudgery and poverty and misery
of the world of to-day, all due to the powerful concentration of capital^
will be done away with. It will be impossible for a man to accumulate
Gould's wealth, because there would be no such thing as profit, and no
man could get more for his work than he produces. There would be no
over-production, because only enough of any one article would be pro-
THE PHILOSOPHY OP ANARCHISM. Ill
duced to meet the demand. There will be no political parties, no capital-
ists, no rings, no kings, no statesmen and no rulers.'
"'How is this change to be brought about f
"'That comes in the revolutionary stage and will happen, as I said,
when the final great struggle of the masses against the moneyed powers
takes place. The money and wages now found in the possession of the
wage class represent the bare coarse necessaries of life, nothing over when
the bills from one week to another are paid. The rest goes to the
profit- taking class, and that is why we call the system wage- slavery.'
" 'What criticism of the present form of government do you make?'
'"All political government must necessarily become despotic, because
all government tends to become centralized in the hands of the few, who
breed corruption among themselves, and in a very short time disconnect
themselves from the body of the people. The American republic is a good
illustration. Here we have the semblance of a republic, of a democracy,
but it has fallen into the hands of a powerful few, who rule with a despot-
ism absolutely impossible in Europe. I have but to refer you to Carter
Harrison's interview not long ago in the JVorld, in which he remarked
that the atrocities committed on the anarchists in Chicago would not have
been suffered in any monarchy.' "
CHAPTEK III.
The Scientific Basis of Anarchy.
By Peter (Prince) Kropotkin.
Anarchy, the no-government system of socialism, has a double
origin. It is an outgrowth of the two great movements of thought
in the economical and the political fields which characterise our century,
and especially its second part. In common with all socialists, the anarch-
ists hold that the private ownership of land, capital, and machinery has
had its time; that it is condemned to disappear; and that all requisites
for production must, and will, become the common property of society,
and be managed in common by the producers of wealth. And, in common
with the most advanced representatives of political radicalism, they main-
tain that the ideal of the political organization of society is a condition of
things where the functions of government are reduced to a minimum, and
the individual recovers his full liberty of initiative and action for satisfy-
ing, by means of free groups and federations — freely constituted — all the
infinitely varied needs of the human being. As regards socialism, most of
the anarchists amve at its ultimate conclusion, that is, at a complete nega-
tion of the wage system and at communism. And with reference to polit-
ical organization, by giving a further develoj)ment to the above mentioned
part of the radical programme, they arrive at the conclusion that the ulti-
mate aim of society is the reduction of the functions of government to nil
112 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
— that is, to a society without government, to an-archy. The anarchists
maintain, moreover, that such being the ideal of social and political organiza-
tion, they must not remit it to future centuries, but that only those changes
in our social organization which are in accordance with the above double
ideal, and constitute an approach to it, will have a chance of life and be
beneficial for the commonwealth.
As to the method followed by the anarchist thinker, it differs to a
great extent from that followed by the utopists. The anarchist thinker
does not resort to metaphysical conceptions (like the "natural rights," the
"duties of the State," and so on) for establishing what are, in his opinion,
the best conditions for realizing the greatest happiness of humanity. He
follows, on the contrary, the course traced by the modern philosophy of
evolution — without entering, however, the slippery route of mere analo-
gies so often resorted to by Herbert Spencer. He studies human society
as it is now and was in the past; and, without either endowing men alto-
gether, or separate individuals, with superior qualities which they do not
possess, he merely considers society as an aggregation of organisms trying
to find out the best ways of combining the wants of the individual with
those of co-operation for the welfare of the species. He studies society
and tries to discover its tendencies, past and present, its growing needs,
intellectual and economical; and in his ideal he merely points out in
which direction evolution goes. He distinguishes between the real wants
and tendencies of human aggregations and the accidents (want of knowl-
edge, migrations, wars, conquests) which prevented these tendencies from
being satisfied, or temporarily paralyzed them. And he concludes that
the two most prominent, although often unconscious, tendencies through-
out our history were: a tendency towards integrating our labor for the
production of all riches in common, so as finally to render it impossible to
discriminate the part of the common production due to the separate indi-
vidual; and a tendency towards the fullest freedom of the individual for
the prosecution of all aims, beneficial both for himself and for society at
large. The ideal of the anarchist is thus a mere summing-up of what he
considers to be the next phase of evolution. It is no longer a matter of
faith; it is a matter for scientific discussion.
In fact, one of the leading features of our century is the growth of
socialism and the rapid spreading of socialist views among the working
classes. How could it be otherwise ? We have witnessed during the last
seventy years an unparalleled sudden increase of our powers of produc-
tion, resulting in an accumulation of wealth which has outstripped the
most sanguine expectations. But, owing to our wage system, this increase
of wealth — due to the combined efforts of men of science, of managers,
and workmen as well — has resulted only in an unpre vented accumulation
of wealth in the hands of the owners of capital ; while an increase of
misery for the great numbers, and an insecurity of life for all, have been
the lot of the workmen. The unskilled laborers, in continuous search for
labor, are falling into an unheard-of destitution; and even the best paid
artisans and skilled workmen, who undoubtedly are living now a more
comfortable life than before, labor under the permanent menace of being
thrown, in their turn, into ihe same conditions as the unskilled paupers,
in consequence of some of the continuous and unavoidable fluctu-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAKCHISM. 113
ations of industry, and caprices of capital. The chasm between the
modem millionaire who squanders the produce of human labor in
a gorgeous and vain luxury, and the pauper reduced to a miser-
able anti insecure existence, is thus growing more and more, so as
to break the very unity of society — the harmony of its life— and to endan-
ger the progress of its fiu'ther development. At the same time, the work-
ing classes are the less inclined patiently to endure this division of
society into two classes, as they themselves become more and more con-
scious of the wealth-producing power of modern industry, of the part
played by labor in the production of wealth, and of their own capacities
of organization. In proportion as all classes of the community take a
more lively part in public affairs, and knowledge spreads among the
masses, their longing for equality becomes stronger, and their demands
of social reorganization become louder and louder. They can be ignored
no more. The worker claims his share in the riches he produces; he
claims his share in the management of production ; and he claims not only
some additional well-being, but also his full rights in the higher enjoy-
ments of science and art. These claims, which formerly were uttered
only by the social reformer, begin now to be made by a daily growing
minority of those who work in the factory or till the acre; and they so
conform with our feelings of justice, that they find support in a daily
growing minority amidst the priviledged classes themselves. Socialism
becomes thus the idea of the nineteenth century; and neither coercion nor
pseudo-reforms can stop its further growth.
Much hope of improvement was laid, of course, in the extension of
political rights to the working classes. But these concessions, unsupported
as they were by corresponding changes in the economical relations proved
delusory. They did not materially improve the conditions of the great
bulk of the workmen. Therefore, the watchword of socialism is:
" Economical freedom, as the only secure basis for political freedom."
And as long as the present wage system, with all its bad consequences,
remains unaltered, the socialist watchword will continue to inspire the
workmen. Socialism will continue to grow until it has realized its
programme.
Side by side with this great movement of thought in economical
matters, a like movement was going on with regard to political rights,
political organization, and the functions of government. Government
was submitted to the same criticism as capital. While most of the radi-
cals saw in universal suffrage and republican institutions the last word of
political wisdom a further step was made by the few. The very functions
of government and the State, as also their relations to the individual, were
submitted to a sharper and deeper criticism. Kepresentative government
having been experimented on a wider field than before, its defects became
more and more prominent. It became obvious that these defects are not
merely accidental, but inherent to the system itself. Parliament and its
executive proved to be unable to attend to all the numberless affairs of the
community and to conciliate the varied and often opposite interests of the
separate parts of a State. Election proved unable to find out the men
who might represent a nation, and manage, otherwise than in a party
spirit, the affairs they are compelled to legislate upon. These defects .be-
114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
came so striking that the very principles of the representative system were
criticised and their justness doubted. Again, the dangers of a centralized
government became still more conspicuous when the socialists came to the
front and asked for a further increase of the powers of government by
entrusting it with the management of the immense field covered now by
the economical relations between individuals. The question was asked,
whether a government, entrusted with the management of industry and
trade, would not become a permanent danger for liberty and peace, and
whether it even would be able to be a good manager ?
The socialists of the earlier part of this century did not fully realize
the immense difficulties of the problem. Convinced as they vv^ero of the
necessity of economical reforms, most of them took no notice of the need
of freedom for the individual ; and we have had social reformers ready to
submit society to any kind of theocracy, dictatorship, or even Csesarism, in
order to obtain reform in a socialist sense. Therefore we saw, in this
country and also on the continent, the division of men of advanced opinions
into political radicals and socialists — the former looking with distrust on
the latter, as they saw in them a danger for the political liberties which
have been won by the civilized nations after a long series of struggles. And
even now, when the socialists all over Europe are becoming political par-
ties, and profess the democratic faith, there remains among most impartial
men a well- founded fear of the Volksstaat or "popular State" being as great
a danger for liberty as any form of autocracy, if its government be entrusted
with the management of all the social organization, including the produc-
tion and distribution of wealth.
The evolution of the last forty years prepared, however, the way for
showiilg the necessity and possibility of a higher form of social organiza-
tion which might guarantee economical freedom without reducing the
individual to the role of a slave to the State. The origins of government
were carefully studied, and all metaphysical conceptions as to divine or
"social contract" derivation having been laid aside, it appeared that it is
among us of a relatively modern origin, and that its powers grew pre-
cisely in proportion as the division of society into the privileged and
unprivileged classes was growing in the course of ages. Representative
government was also reduced to its real value — that of an instrument
which has rendered services in the struggle against autocracy, but not an
ideal of fi'ee political organization. As to the system of philosophy which
saw in the State (the Kultur-Staat) a leader to progress, it was more and
more shaken as it became evident that progi'ess is the more effective when
it is not checked by State interference. It thus became obvious that
a further advance in social life does not lie in the direction of a further
concentration of power and regulative fimctions in the hands of a govern-
ing body, but in the direction of decentralization, both territorial and
functional — in a subdivision of public functions with respect both to their
sphere of action and to the character of the functions; it is in the aban-
donment to the initiative of freely constituted groups of all those functions
which are now considered as the functions of government.
This current of thought found its expression not merely in literature,
but also, to a limited extent, in life. The uprise of the Paris commune,
followed by that of the commune of Cartagena — a movement of which the
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AKARCHISM. 115
historical bearing seems to have been quite overlooked in this country —
opened a new i)age of history. If we analyze not only this movement in
itself, but also the impression it left in the minds and the tendencies which
were manifested during the communal revolution, we must recognize in it
an indication showing that in the future human agglomerations which are
more advanced in their social development will try to start an independent
life; and that they will endeavor to convert the more backward parts of a
nation by example, instead of imposing their opinions by law and force,
or submitting themselves to the majority rule, which always is a mediocrity
rule. At the same time the failure of representative government within
the commune itself proved that self- government and self- administration
must be carried on further than in a mere territorial sense ; to be effective
they must be carried on also with regard to the various functions of life
within the free community; a merely territorial limitation of the sphere
of action of government will not do — representative government being as
deficient in a city as it is a nation. Life gave thus a further point in
favor of the no -government theory, and a new impulse to anarchist
thought.
Anarchists recognize the justice of both the just-mentioned tenden-
cies towards economical and political freedom, and see in them two difPer-
ent manifestations of the very same need of equality which constitutes the
very essence of all struggles mentioned by history. Therefore, in common
with all socialists, the anarchist says to the political reformer: "No sub-
stantial reform in the sense of political equality, and no limitation- of the
powers of government, can be made as long as society is divided into two
hostile camps, and the laborer remains, economically speaking, a serf, to
his employer." But to the popular state socialist we say also: "You can-
not modify the existing conditions of property without deeply modifying
at the same time the political organization. You must limit the powers of
government and renounce parliamentary rule. To each new economical
phasis of life corresponds a new political phasis. Absolute monarchy —
that is, court-nile — corresponded to the system of serfdom. Representa-
tive government con'esponds to capital-rule. Both, however, are class
rule. But in a society where the distinction between capitalist and laborer
has disappeared, there is no need of such a government; it would be an
anachronism, a nuisance. Free workers would require a free organiza-
tion, and this cannot have another basis than free agreement and free co-
operation, without sacrificing the autonomy of the individual to the all-
pervading interference of the State. The no-capitalist system implies the
no-government system."
Meaning thus the emancipatian of man from the oppressive powers
of capitalist and government as well, the system of anarchy becomes a
synthesis of the two powerful currents of thought which characterize our
century.
In arriving at these conclusions anarchy proves to be in accordance
with the conclusions arrived at by the philosophy of evolution. By bring-
ing to the light the plasticity of organizaton, the philosophy of evolution
has shown the admirable adayitivity of organisms to their conditions of
life, and the ensuing development of siich faculties as render more com-
plete both the adaptations of the aggregates to their surroundings and
116 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANA,RCHISM.
those of each of the constituent parts of the aggregate to the needs of fi'ee
co-operation. It familiarized us with the circumstance that throughout
organic natiu'e the capacities for life in common are growing in proportion
as the integration of organisms into compound aggregates becomes more
and more complete; and it enforced thus the opinion already expressed
by social moralists as to the perfectibility of human nature. It has shown
us that, in the long run of the struggle for existence, ''the fittest" will prove
to be those who combine intellectual knowledge with the knowledge neces-
sary for the production of wealth, and not those who are now the richest
because they, or their ancestors, have been momentarily the strongest. By
showing that the "struggle for existence" must be conceived, not merely
in its restricted sense of a struggle between individuals for the means of
subsistence, but in its wider sense of adaptation of all individuals of the
species to the best conditions for the survival of the species, as well as for
the greatest possible sum of life and happiness for each and all, it per-
mitted us to deduce the laws of moral science from the social needs and
habits of mankind. It showed us the infinitesimal part played by posi-
tive law in moral evolution, and the immense part played by the natural
growth of altruistic feelings, which develop as soon as the conditions of
life favor their growth. It thus enforced the opinion of social reformers
as to the necessity of modifying the conditions of life for improving man,
instead of trying to improve human nature by moral teachings while life
works in an opposite direction. Finally, by studying human society from
the biological point of view, it came to the conclusions arrived at by
anarchists from the study of history and present tendencies, as to further
progress being in the line of socialization of wealth and integrated labor,
combined with the fullest possible freedom of the individual.
It is not a mere coincidence that Herbert Spencer, whom we may
consider as a pretty fair expounder of the philosophy of evolution, has
been brought to conclude, with regard to political organization, that "that
form of society towards which we are progressing" is "one in which gov-
ernment will be reduced to the smallest amount possible, and freedom
increased to the greatest amount possible." When he opposes in these
words the conclusion of his synthetic philosophy to those of Auguste
Cr'mte, he arrives at very nearly the same conclusion as Proudhon and
Bakunin. More than that, the very methods of argumentation and
the illustrations resorted to by Herbert Spencer (daily supply of food,
postofiice, and so on) are the same which we find in the writings of the
anarchists. The channels of thought were the same, although both were
unaware of each other's endeavors.
A gain, when Mr. Spencer so powerfully and even not without a
touch of passion, argues (in his appendix to the third edition of the Data
of Ethics) that human societies are marching towards a state when a fur-
ther indentification of altruism with egoism will be made "in the sense
that personal gratification will come from the gi-atification of others;" when
he says that "we are shown, undeniably, that it is a perfectly possible
thing for organisms to become so adjusted to the requirements of their
lives, that energy expended for the general welfare may not only be ade-
quate to check energy expended for the individual welfare, but may come
to subordinate it so far as to leave individual welfare no greater part than
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANABCHISM. 117
is necessary for the maintenance of individual life" — provided the condi-
tions for such relations between the individual and the community be
maintained he derives from the study of nature the very same conclu-
sions which the forerunners of anarchy, Fourier, and Robert Owen, derived
from a study of human character.
When we see further jVIr. Bain so forcibly elaborating the theory of
moral habits, and the French philosopher, M. Guyau, publishing his
remarkable work on morality without obligation or sanction; when J. S.
Mill so sharply criticises representative government, and when he discusses
the problem of liberty, although failing to establish its necessary condi-
tions; when Sir John Lubbock prosecutes his admirable studies on animal
societies, and Mr. Morgan applies scientific methods of investigation to
the philosophy of history — when, in short, every year, by bringing some
new arguments to the theory of anarchy — we must recognize that this last
although differing as to its starting points, follows the same sound meth-
ods of scientific investigation. Our confidence in its conclusions is still
more increased. The difference between anarchists and the just-named
philosophers may be immense as to the presumed speed of evolution, and as
to the conduct which one ought to assume as soon as he has had an insight
into the aims toward which society is marching. No attempt, however,
has been made scientifically to determine the ratio of evolution, nor have
the chief elements of the problem (the state of mind of the masses) been
taken into account by the evolutionist philosophers. As to bringing one's
action into accordance with his philosophical conceptions, we know that,
unhappily, intellect and will are too oft.en separated by a chasm not to be
filled by mere philosophical speculations, however deep and elaborate.
There is, however, between the just-named philosophers and the
anarchists a wide difference on one point of primordial importance. This
difference is the stronger as it arises on a point which might be discussed
figures in hand, and which constitutes the very basis of all further deduc-
tion, as it belongs to what biological sociology would describe as the phys-
iology of nutrition.
There is, in fact, a widely spread fallacy, maintained by Mr. Spencer
and many others, as to the causes of the misery which we see round about
us. It was affirmed forty years ago, and it is affirmed now by Mr. Spen-
cer and his followers, that misery in civilized society is due to our insuffi-
cient production, or rather to the circumstance that " population presses
upon the means of subsistence,"' It would be of no use to inquire into
the origin of such a misrepresentation of facts, which might be easily ver-
ified. It may have its origin in inherited misconce})tions which have noth-
ing to do with the philosophy of evolution. But to be maintained and
advocated by philosophers, there must be, in the conceptions of these
philosophers, some confusion as to the diff'erent aspects of the stniggle
for existence. Sufficient importance is not given to the difference between
the struggle which goes on among organisms which do not co-operate for
providing the means of subsistence, and those which do so. In this last
case again there must be some confusion between those aggregates whose
members find their means of subsistence in the ready produce of the vege-
table and animal kingdom, and those whose members artificially grow their
means of subsistence and are enabled to increase (to a y* t imknown
118 THE PHIHLOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
amount) the productivity of each spot of the surface of the globe. Hun-
ters who hunt, each of them for his own sake, and hunters who unite into
societies for hunting, stand quite difPerently with regard to the means of
subsistence. But the difference is still greater between the hunters who
take their means of subsistence as they are in nature, and civilized men
who grow their food and produce all requisites for a comfortable life by
machinery. In this last case — the stock of potential energy in nature be-
ing little short of infinite in comparison with the present population of the
globe — the means of availing ourselves of the stock of energy are increased
and perfected precisely in proportion to the density of population and to
previously accumulated stock of technical knowledge ; so that for human
beings who are in possession of scientific knowledge, and co-operate for
the artificial production of the means of subsistence and comfort, the law
is quite the reverse to that of Malthus. The accumulation of means of
subsistence and comfort is going on at a much speedier rate than the in-
crease of population. The only conclusion which we can deduce from the
laws of evolution and multiplication of effects is that the available amount
of means of subsistence increases at a rate which increases itself in propor-
tion as population becomes denser — unless it be artificially (and tempor-
arily) checked by some defects of social organization. As to our poivers
of production (our potential production), they increase at a still speedier
rate; in production as scientific knowledge grows, the means for spreading
it are rendered easier, and inventive genius is stimulated by all previous
inventions.
If the fallacy as to the pressure of population on the means of subsis-
tence could be maintained a hundi-ed years ago, it can be maintained no
more, since we have witnessed the effects of science on industry, and the
enormous increase of our productive power during the last hundred years.
We know, in fact, that while the growth of population of England has
been from 16 J millions in 1844 to 26f millions in 1888, showing thus an
increase of 62 per cent., the growth of national wealth (as testified by
schedule A of the Income Tax Act) has increased at a twice speedier rate;
it has grown from 221 to 507 J millions — that is, by 130 per cent. And
we know that the same increase of wealth has taken place in France, where
population remains almost stationary, and that it has gone on at a still
speedier rate in the United States, where population is increasing ev^ry
year by immigration.
But the figures just mentioned, while showing the increase of produc-
tion, give only a faint idea of what our production might be under a more
reasonable economical organization. We know well that the owners of
capital, while trying to produce more wares with fewer "hands," are also
continually endeavouring to limit the production, in order to sell at higher
prices. When the benefits of a concern are going down, the owner of the
capital limits the production, or totally suspends it, and prefers to engage
his capital in foreign loans or shares of Patagonian gold-mines. Just now
there are plenty of pitmen in England who ask for nothing better than to
be permitted to extract coal and supply with cheap fuel the households
where children are shivering before empty chimneys. There are thou-
sands of weavers who ask for nothing better than to weave stuffs in order
to replace the Whitechapel rugs with linen. And so in all branches of
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 119
industry. How can we talk about a want of means of subsistence when
246 blasting furnaces and thousands of factories lie idle in Great Britain
alone; and when there are, just now, thousands and thousands of unem-
ployed in London alone; thousands of men who would consider them-
selves happy if they were permitted to transform (under the guidance of
experienced men) the heavy clay of Middlesex into a rich soil, and to cover
with rich cornfields and orchards the acres of meadow-land which now
yield only a few pounds' worth of hay ? But they are prevented from
doing so by the owners of the land, of the weaving factory, and of the
coal-mine, because capital finds it more advantageous to supply the Khe-
dive with harems and the Russian Government with " strategic railways"
and Krupp guns. Of course the maintenance of harems pays ; it gives
ten or fifteen per cent, on the capital, while the extraction of . coal does not
pay — that is, it brings three or five per cent., — and that is a sufficient rea-
son for limiting the production and permitting would-be economists to
indulge in reproaches to the working classes as to their too rapid multipli-
cation !
Here we have instances of a direct and conscious limitation of produc-
tion, due to the circumstance that the requisites for production belong to
the few, and that these few have the right of disposing of them at their
will, without caring about the interests of the community. But there is
also the indirect and unconscious limitation of production — that which re-
sults from squandering the produce of human labor in luxury, instead of
applying it to a further increase of production.
The last even cannot be estimated in figures, but a walk through the
rich shops of any city and a glance at the manner in which money is
squandered now, can give an approximate idea of this indirect limitation.
When a rich man spends a thousand pounds for his stables, he squanders
five to six thousand days of human labor, which might be used, under a
better social organization, for supplying with comfortable homes those
who are compelled to live now in dens. And when a lady spends a hun-
dred pounds for her dress, we cannot but say that she squanders, at least,
two years of human labor, which, again under a better organization, might
have supplied a hundred women with decent dresses, and much more if
applied to a fui-ther improvement of the instruments of production.
Preachers thunder against luxury, because it is shameful to squander money
for feeding and sheltering hounds and horses, when thousands live in the
East End on sixpence a day, and other thousands have not even their mis-
erable sixpence every day. But the economist sees more than that in our
modern luxury, when millions of days of labor are spent every year for the
satisfaction of the stupid vanity of the rich, he says that so many millions
of workers have been diverted from the manufacture of those useful instru-
ments which would permit us to decuple and centuple our present produc-
tion of means of subsistence and of requisites for comfort.
In short, if we take into account both the real and the j^otential increase
of our wealth, and consider both the direct and indirect limitation of pro-
duction, which are unavoidable under our present economical system, we
must recognize that the supposed '' pressure of population on the means of
subsistence " is a mere fallacy, repeated, like many other fallacies, without
120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAECHISM.
even taking the trouble of submitting it to a moment's criticism. The
causes of the present social disease must be sought elsewhere.
Let us take a civilized country. The forests have been cleared, the
swamps drained. Thousands of roads and railways intersect it in all di-
directions; the rivers have been rendered navigable, and the seaports are
of easy access. Canals connect the seas. The rocks have been pierced by
deep shafts; thousands of manufactures cover the land. Science has
taught men how to use the energy of nature for the satisfaction for his
needs. Cities have slowly grown in the long run of ages, and treasures
of science and art are accumulated in these centres of civilization. But —
who has made all these marvels ?
The combined efforts of scores of generations have contributed
towards the achievement of these results. The forests have been cleared
centuries ago; millions of men have spent years and years of labor in
draining the swamps, in tracing the roads, in building the rail ways. Other
millions have built the cities and created the civilization we boast of.
Thousands of inventors, mostly unknown, mostly dying in poverty and
neglect, have elaborated the machinery in which man admires his genius.
Thousands of writers, philosophers and men of science, supported by
many thousands of compositors, printers, and other laborers whose name
is legion, have contributed in elaborating and spreading knowledge, in
dissipating errors, in creating the atmosphere of scientific thought, with-
out which the marvels of our century never would have been brought to
life. The genius of a Mayer and a Grove, the patient work of a Joule,
surely have done more for giving a new start to modern industry than all
the capitalists of the world; but these men of genius themselves are, in
their turn, the children of industry; thousands of engines had to transform
heat into mechanical force, and mechanical force into sound, light and
electricity — and they had to do so years long, every day, under the eyes
of humanity — ^before some of our contemporaries proclaimed the mechani-
cal origin of heat and the correlation of physical forces, and before we our-
selves became prepared to listen to them and understand their teachings,
Who knows for how many decades we should continue to be ignorant of
this theory which now revolutionizes industry, were it not for the inventive
powers and skill of those unknown workers who have improved the steam-
engine, who brought all its parts to perfection, so as to make steam more
manageable than a horse, and to render the use of the engine nearly
imiversal ? But the same is true with regard to each smallest part of our
machinery. In each machine, however simple, we may read a whole
history — a long history of sleepless nights, of delusions and joys, of partial
inventions and partial improvements which brought it to its present state.
Nay, nearly each new machine is a synthesis, a result of thousands of partial
inventions made, not only in one special department of machinery, but in
all departments of the wide field of mechanics.
Our cities, connected by roads and brought into easy communication
with all peopled parts of the globe, are the growth of centuries ; and each
house in these cities, each factory, each shop, derives its value, its very
raison d'etre from the fact that it is situated on a spot of the globe where
thousands or millions have gathered together. Every smallest part of the
immense whole which we call the wealth of civilized nation derives its
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. • 12 L
value precisely from being a part of this whole. What would be the value
of an immense London shop or storehouse were it not situated precisely in
London, which has become the gathering spot for five millions of human
beings ? And what the value of our coal-pits, our manufactures, our ship
buildin yards, were it not for the immense traffic which goes on across the
seas, for the railways which transport mountains of merchandise, for the
cities which number their inhabitants by millions ? Who, is, then, the in-
dividual who has the right to step forward and, laying his hands on the
smallest part of this immense whole, to say, "I have produced this; it be-
longs to me ?" And how can we discriminate, in this immense interwoven
whole, the part which the isolated individual may appropriate to himself
with the slightest approach to justice ? Houses and streets, canals and
railways, machines and works of art, all these have been created by the
combined efforts of generations past and present, of men living on these
islands and men living thousands of miles away.
But it has happened in the long run of ages that everything which
permits men further to increase their production, or even to continue it, has
has been appropriated by the few. The land which derives its value pre-
cisely from its being necessary for an ever-increasing population belongs
to the few, who may prevent the community from cultivating it. ,The coal-
pits, which represent the labor of generations, and which also derive their
value from the wants of the manufactures and railroads, from the immense
trade carried on and the density of population (what is the value of coal-
layers in Transbaikilia ?) belong again to the few, who have even the right
of stopping the extraction of coal if they choose to give another use to
their capital. The lace-weaving machine, which represents in its present
state of perfection, the work of three generations of Lancashire weavers,
belongs again to the few; and if the grandsons of the very same weaver
who invented the first lace-weaving machine claim their rights of bring-
ing one of these machines into motion, they will be told ' Hands off ! this
machine does not belong to you! ' The railroads, which mostly would be
useless heaps of iron if Great Britain had not its present dense popula-
tion, its industry, trade, and traffic, belong again to the few — to a few
shareholders, who may even not know where the railway is situated which
brings them a yearly income largely than that oi a mediaeval king; and if
the children of those people who died by thousands in digging the tun-
nels would gather and go — a ragged and starving crowd — to ask bread or
work from the shareholders, they would be met with bayonets and
bullets.
Who is the sophist who will dare to say that such an organization is just ?
But what is unjust cannot be beneficial for mankind; and it is not. Li
consequence of this monstrous organization, the son of a workman, when
he is able to work, finds no acre to till, no machine to set in motion, unless
he agrees to sell his labor for a sum inferior to its real value. His father
and grandfather have contributed in draining the field, or erecting the
factory, to the full extent of their capacities — and nobody can do more
than that — but he comes into the world more destitute than a savage. If
he resorts to agriculture, he will be })ennitted to cultivate a plot of land^
but on the condition that he gives up one quarter of his crop to the land-
lord. If he resorts to industry% he will be permitted to work, but on the
122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
condition that out of the thirty shillings he has produced, ten shillings or
more will be pocketed by the owner of the machine. We cry against the
feudal baron who did not permit anyone to settle on his land otherwise
than on payment of one quarter of the crops to the lord of the manor ;
but we continue to do as they did — we extend their system. The forms
have changed, but the essence has remained the same. And the workman
is compelled to accept the feudal conditions which we call ' free contract,'
because nowhere will he find better conditions. Everything has been ap-
propriated by somebody ; he must accept the bargain or starve.
Owing to this circumstance our production takes a wrong turn. It
takes no care of the needs of the commimity ; its only aim is to increase
the benefits of the capitalist. Therefore— the continuous fluctuations of
industry, the crisis periodically coming nearly every ten years, and throw-
ing out of employment several hundred thousand men who are brought to
complete misery, whose children grow up in the gutter, ready to become
inmates of the prison and workhouse. The workmen being unable to
purchase with their wages the riches they are producing, industry must
search for markets elsewhere, amidst the middle clases of other nations.
It must find markets, in the East, in Africa, anywhere ; it must increase
by trade,. the number of its serfs in Eygpt, in India, in the Congo. But
everywhere it finds competitors in other nations which rapidly enter into
the same line of industrial development. And wars, continuous wars,
mast be fought for the supremacy on the world-market — wars for the
possession of the East, wars for getting possession of the seas, wars for
having the right of imposing heavy duties on foreign merchandise. The
thunder of guns never ceases in Europe; whole generations are slaughtered;
and we spend in armaments the third of the revenues of our States — a
revenue raised, the poor know with what difiiculties.
Education is the privilege of the few. Not because we can find no
teachers, not because the workman's son and daughter are less able to
receive instruction, but because one can receive no reasonable instruction
when at the age of fifteen he descends into the mine, or goes selling news-
papers in the streets. Society becomes divided into two hostile camps;
and no freedom is possible under such conditions. While the radical asks
for a further extension of liberty, the statesman answers him that a further
increase of liberty would bring about an uprising of the paupers; and
those political liberties which have cost so dear are replaced by coercion,
by exceptional laws, by military rule.
And finally, the injustice of our repartition of wealth exercises the
most deplorable effect on our morality. Our principles of morality say:
"Love your neighbor as yourself;" but let a child follow this principle and
take off his coat to give it to the shivering pauper, and his mother will
tell him that he must never understand the moral principles in their right
sense. If he lives according to them, he will go barefoot, without allevi-
ating the misery round about him ! Morality is good on the lips, not in
deeds. Our preachers say, "Who works, prays," and everybody endeavors
to make others work for himself. They say, " Never lie!" and politics is a
big lie. And we accustom ourselves and our children to live under this
double-faced morality, which is hypocrisy, and to conciliate our double-
facedness by sophistry. Hypocrisy and sophistry become the very basis
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 123
of our life. But society caiinot live under such a morality. It cannot last
so; it must, it will, be changed.
The question is thus no more a mere question of bread. It covers
the whole field of human activity. But it has at its bottom a question of
social economy, and we conclude : The means of production and of satis-
faction of all needs of society, having been created by the common efforts
of all, must be at the disposal of all. The private api^ropriation of
requisites for production is neither just nor beneficial. All must be placed
on the same footing as producers and consumers of wealth. That would
be the only way for society to step out of the bad conditions which have
been created by centuries of wars and oppression. That would be the
only guarantee for further progress in a direction of equality and freedom,
which always were the real though outspoken goal of humanity.
CHAPTER lY.
The Comikg Anarchy.
The views taken in the preceding article as to the combination of
efforts being the chief source of our wealth explain why most anar-
chists see in communism the only equitable solution as to the adequate
remuneration of individual efforts. There was a time when a family
engaged in agriculture, and supported by a few domestic trades, could
consider the corn they raised and the plain woollen cloth they wove as
productions of their own and nobody else's labor. Even then such a
view was not quite correct ; there were forests cleared and roads built
by common efforts ; and even then the family had continually to apply
for communal help, as it is still the case in so many village communities.
But now, under the extremely interwoven state of industry, of which
each branch supports all others, such an individualistic view can be
held no more. It the iron trade and the cotton industry of this coun-
try have reached so high a degree of development, they have done so
owing to the parallel growth of thousands of other industries, great and
small ; to the extension of the railway system ; to an increase of knowl-
edge among both the skilled engineers and the mass of the workmen ;
to a certain training in organization slowly developed among British
producers ; and, above all, to the world-trade which has itself grown
up, thanks to works executed thousands of miles away. The Italians
who died from cholera in digging the Suez Canal, or from *' tunnel-
disease " in the St. Gothard Tunnel, have contributed as much towards
the enrichment of this country as the British girl who is prematurely
growing old in serving a machine at Mnnchester ; and this girl as much
as the engineer who made a labor-saving improvement in our machin-
ery. How can we pretend to estimate the exact part of each of them
in the riches accumulated around us?
We may admire the inventive genius or the organizing capacities
224 "^^^ PLILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
of ail iron lord ; but we must recognize that all his genius and energy
would not realize one-tenth of what they realize here if they were spent
in dealing with Mongolian shepherds or Siberian peasants instead of
British workmen, British engineers, and trustworthy managers. An
English millionaire who succeeded in giving a powerful impulse to a
branch of home industry was asked the other day what were, in his
opinion, the real causes of his success? His answer was :^*- 1 always
sought out the right man for a given branch of the concern, and I left
him full independence — maintaining, of course, for myself the general
supervision. 's ''Did you never fail to find such men?'^ was the next
question. "Never." ''But in the new branches which you introduced
you wanted a number of new inventions." " No doubt ; we spent
thousands in buying patents." This little colloquy sums up, in my
opinion, the real case of those industrial undertakings which are quoted
by the advocates of " an adequate remuneration of individual efforts" in
the shape of millions bestowed on the managers of prosperous industries.
It shows in how far the efforts are really " individual. ' Leaving aside
the thousand conditions which sometimes permit a man to show, and
sometimes prevent him from showing, his capacities to their full ex-
tent, it might be asked in how far the same capacities could bring out
the same results, if the very same employer could find no trustworthy
managers and no skilled workmen, and if hundreds of inventions were
not stimulated by the mechanical turn of mind of so* many inhabitants
of this country. British industry is the work of the British nation —
nay, of Europe and India taken together — not of separate individuals.
While holding this synthetic view on production^ the anarchist
cannot consider, like the collectivists, that a remuneration which would
be proportionate to the hours of labor spent by each person in the pro-
duction of riches may be an ideal, or even an approach to an ideal, soci-
ety. Without entering here into a discussion as to how far the exchange
value of each merchandise is really measured now by the amount of
labor necessary for its production — ti separate study must be devoted to
the subject — we must say that the collectivist ideal seems to us merely
unrealizable in a society which would be brought to consider the neces-
saries for production as a common property. Such a society w^ould be
compelled to abandon the wage-system altogether. It appears impossi-
ble that the mitigated individualism of the collectivist school could
co-exist with the partial communism implied by holding land and mr'-
chinery in common — unless imposed by a powerful government, much
more powerful than all those of our own times. The present wage-
system has grown up from the appropriation of the necessaries for pro-
duction by the few ; it was a necessary condition for the growth of the
present capitalist production ; and it cannot outlive it, even if an at-
tempt be made to pay the worker the full value of his produce, and
money be substituted by hours of labor checks. Common possession
of the necessaries for production implies the common enjoyment of the
fruits of the common production; and we consider that an equitable
organization of society can only arise when every wage-system is aban-
doned, and when everybody, contributing for the common well-being
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 125
to the fuH extent of his capacities, shall enjoy also from the common
stock of society to the fullest possible extent or his needs.
We maintain, moreover, not only that communism is a desirable
state of society, but that the growing tendency of modern society is
precisely towards communism — free communism — notwithstanding the
seemingly contradictory growth of individualism. In the growth of
individualism (especially during the last three centuries) we merely see
the endeavors of the individual towards emancipating himself from the
steadily growing powers of capital and state, but side by side with this
growth we see also, throughout history up to our own times, the latent
struggle of the producers of wealth for maintaining the partial commu-
nism of old, as well as for reintroducing communist principles in a new
shape, as soon as favorable conditions permit it. As soon as the com-
munes of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries were enabled to
start their own independent life, they gave a wide extension to work in
common, to trade in common, and to a partial consumption in common.
All this has disappeared; but the rural commune fights a hard struggle to
maintain its old features, and it succeeds in maintaining them in many
places of E istern Europe, Switzerland, and even France and Germany;
while new organizations, based on the same principles, never fail to grow
up as soon as it is possible. Notwithstanding the egotistic turn given
to the public mind by the merchant-production of our century, the
communist tendency is continually reasserting itself and trying to make
its way into public life. The penny bridge disappears before the public
bridge; so also the road which formerly had to be paid for its use. The
same spirit pervades thousands of other institutions. Museums, free
libraries, and free public schools; parks and pleasure grounds; paved
and lighted streets, free for every body's use; water supplied to private
dwellings, with a growing tendency towards disregarding the exact
amount of it used by the individual; tramways and railways which
have already begun to introduce the season ticket or the uniiorm tax,
and will surely go much further on this line when they are no longer
private property; all these are tokens showing in which direction further
progress is to be expected.
It is in putting the wants of the individual above the valuation of
the services he has rendered, or might render, to society; it is in consid-
ering society as a whole, so intimately 'connected that a service rendered
to any individual is a service rendered to the whole society. The libra-
rian of the l^ritish Museum does not ask the reader what have been his
previous services to society, he simply gives him the books he requires;
and for a uniform fee, a scientific society leaves its gardens and muse-
ums at the free disposal of each member. The crew of a life-boat do
not ask whether the men of a distressed ship are entitled to be rescued
at a risk of life; and the Prisoners' Aid Society do not inquire what the
released prisoner is worth. Here are men in need of a service; they
are fellotr men, and no further rights are required. And if this very
city, so egotistic to-day, be visited by a ])ublic calamity — let it be be-
sieged, for example, like Paris in 1871, and experience during the siege
a want of food — this very same city would be unanimous in proclaim-
226 "^^^ PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
ing that the first needs to be satisfied are those of the children and old,
no matter what services they may render or have rendered to society.
And it would take care of the active defenders of the city, whatevei
the degrees of gallantry displayed by each of them. But, this ten-
dency already existing, nobody will deny, 1 suppose, that, in proportion
as humanity is relieved from its hard struggle for life, the same tendency
will grow stronger. If our productive powers be fully applied for in-
creasing the stock of the staple necessities for life; if a modification of
the present conditions of property increased the number of producers
by all those who are not producers of wealth now; and if manual labor
reconquered its place of honor in society — all this decuplating our pro-
duction and rendering labor easier and more attractive — the communist
tendencies already existing would immediately enlarge their sphere of
application.
Taking all that into account, and still more the practical aspects
of the question as to how private property might iDecome common
property, most of the anarchists maintaij;i that the very next step to
be made by society, as soon as the present regime of property under-
goes a modification, will be in a communist sense. We are communists.
But our communism is not that of either the Phalanstere or the
authoritarian school: it is anarchist communism, communism with-
out government, free communism. It is a synthesis of the two
chief aims prosecuted by humanity since the dawn of its history —
economical freedom and political freedom.
I have already said that anarchy means no-government. We
know well that the word '^ anarchy " is also used in the current lan-
guage as synonymous with disorder. But that meaning of "anarchy,'"'
being a derived one, implies at least two suppositions. It implies,
first, that wherever there is no government there is disorder; and it
implies, moreover, that order, due to a strong government and a strong
police, is always beneficial. Both implications, however, are anything
but proved. There is plenty of order — we should say, of harmony — in
many branches of human activity where the government, happily, does
not interfere. As to the beneficial effects of order, the kind of order
that reigned at Naples under the Bourbons surely was not preferable
to some disorder started by Garibaldi; while the protestants of .this
country will probably say that the good deal of dfsordermade by Luther
was preferable, at any rate, to the order which reigned under the Pope.
As to the proverbial " order ^' which was once "restored at Warsaw,"
there are, I suppose, no' two opinions about it. While all agree that
harmony is always desirable, there is no such unanimity about order,
and still less about the "order" which is supposed to reign in our modern
societies; so that we have no objection whatever to the use of the word
*'anarchy" as a negation of what has been often described as order.
By taking for our watchword anarchy, in its sense of no-govern-
ment, we intend to express a pronounced tendency of human society.
In history we see that precisely those epochs when small parts of human-
ity broke down the power of their rulers and reassumed their freedom
were epochs of the greatest progress, economical and intellectual. Be
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. X27
it the growth of the free cities, whose iiiirivailed monuments — free work
of free associations of workers — sti.l testify to the revival to the mind and
of the well-being of the citizen; be it the great movement which gave birth
to the Reformation — those epochs witnessed the greatest progress when
the individual recovered some part of his freedom. And if we carefully
watch the present development of civilized nations, we cannot fail to
discover in it a marked and ever-growing movement towards limiting
moro and more the sphere of action of government, so as to leave more
and more liberty to the initiative of the individual. After having tried
all kinds of government, and endeavored to solve the insoluble problem
of having a government " which might compel the individual to obe-
dience, without escaping itself from obedience to collectivity," humanity
is trying now to free itself from the bonds of any government whatever,
and to respond to its needs of organization by the free understanding
between individuals prosecuting the same common aims. Home rule
even for the smallest territorial unit or a group, becomes a growing
need; free agreement is becoming a substitute for law; and free co-
operation a substitute for governmental guardianship. One after the
other those functions which were considered as the functions of govern-
ment during the last two centuries are disputed; society moves better
the less it is governed. And the more we study the advance made in
this direction, as well as the inadequacy of governments to fullfil the
expectations laid in them, the more we are bound to .conclude that
humanity, by steadily limiting the functions of government, is march-
ing towards reducing them finally to nil; and we already ^ee a state of
society where the liberty of the individual will be limited by no laws,
no bonds — by nothing else but his own social habits and the necessity,
which everyone feels, of finding co-operation, support, and sympathy
among his neighbors.
Of course, the no-government ethics will meet with at least as
many objections as the no-capital economics. Our minds have been
so nurtured in prejudices as to the providential functions of govern-
ment that anarchist ideas must be received with distrust. Our
whole education, since childhood up to the grave, nurtures the belief in
the necessity of a government and its beneficial effects. Systems of
philosophy have been elaborated to support this view; history has been
written from this standpoint; theories of law have been circulated and
taught for the same purpose. All politics are based on the same prin-
ciple, each politician saying to people he wants to support him: "Give
me the governmental power; I will, I can, relieve you from the hardships
of your present life." All our education is permeated with the same
teachings. We may open any book of sociology, history, law, or ethics;
everywhere we find government, its organization, its deeds, playing so
prominent a part that we grow accustomed to suppose that the State
and the political men are everything; that there is nothing behind the
big statesmen. The same teachings are daily repeated in the press.
Whole columns are filled up with minutest records of parliamentary
debates, of movements of political persons; and, while reading these
columns, we too often forget that there is an immense body of men —
128
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
mankind, in fact— growing and dying, living in happiness or sorrow,
laboring and consuming, thinking and creating, besides those few men
whose importance has been swollen up as to overshadow humanity.
And yet, if we revert from the printed matter to our real life,
and cast a broad glance on society as it is, we are struck with the
infinitesimiil part played by government in our life. Millions of
human beings live and die without having had anything to do with
government. Every day millions of transactions are made without
the slightest interference of government; and those who enter into
agreements have not the slightest intention of breaking bargains.
Nay, those agreements which are not protected by government
(those of the exchange, or card debts) are perhaps better kept than
any others. The simple habit of keeping his word, the desire of not
losing confidence, are quite sufiicient in the immense overwhelming
majority of cases to enforce the keeping of agreements. Of course,
it may be said that there is still the government which might
enforce them if necessary. But not to speak of the numberless cases
which even could not be brought before a court, everybody who has the
slightest acquaintance with trade will undoubtedly confirm the assertion
that, if there were not so strong a feeling of honor to keep agreements,
trade itself would become utterly impossible. Even those merchants
and manufacturers who feel not the slightest remorse when poisoning
their customers with all kind of abominable drugs, duly labelled, even
they also keep their commercial agreements. But, if such a relative
morality as commercial honesty exists now, under the present conditions,
when enrichment is the chief motive, the same feeling will further
develop very fast as soon as robbing somebody of the fruits of his labor
is no longer the economical basis of our life.
Another striking feature of our century tells in favor of the same
no-government tendency. It is the steady enlargement of the field
covered by private initiative, and the [recent growth of large organi-
zations resulting merely and simply from free agreement. The railway
net of Europe — a confederation of so many scores of separate societies —
and the direct transport of passengers and merchandise over so many
lines which were built independently and federated together, without
even so much as a central board of European railways, are a most
striking instance of what is already done by mere agreement. If fifty
years ago somebody had predicted that railways built by so many
separate companies finally would constitute so perfect a net as they do
to-day, he surely would have been treated as a fool. It would have been
urged that so many companies, prosecuting their own interests, would
never agree without an international board of railways, supported by
an international convention of the European States, and endow^ed witn
governmental powers. But no such board was resorted to, and the
agreement came nevertheless. The Dutch Beiirden extending now their
organizations over the rivers of Germany, and even to the shipping trade
of the Baltic; the numberless amalgamated manufacturers' associations,
and the syndicats of France, are so many instances in point. If it be
art^ued that many of these organizations are organizations for exrloita^
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 121)
tion, it would prove nothing, because, if men prosecuting their own
egotistic, often very narrow, interests can agree together, better inspired
men, compelled to be more closely connected with other groups, will
necessarily agree still easier and still better.
But there also is no lack of free organizations for nobler pursuits.
One of the noblest achievements of our century is undoubtedly the Life-
boat Association. Since its first humble start, which we all remember,
it has saved no less than 82,000 human lives. It makes appeal to the
noblest instincts of man; its activity is entirely dependent upon devo-
tion to the common cause; while its internal organization is entirely
based upon the independence of the local committees. The Hospitals
Association and hundreds of like organizations, operating upon a large
-scale and covering each a wide field, may also be mentioned under this
head. But, while we know everything about governments and their
deeds what do we know about the results achieved by free co-operation?
Thousands of volumes have been written to record the acts of govern-
ments; the most trifling amelioration due to law has been recorded; its
good effects have been exaggerated, its bad effects passed by in silence.
But where is the book recording what has been achieved by free co-oper-
ation of well-inspired men? — At the same time, hundreds of societies
are constituted every day for the satisfaction of some of the infinitely
varied needs of civilized men. We have societies for all possible kinds
of studies — some of them embracing the whole field of natural science,
others limited to a small special branch ; societies for gymnastics, for
shorthand-writing, for the study of a separate author, for games, and
all kinds of sport, for forwarding the science of maintaining life, and
for favoring the knowledge of how to destroy it; philosophical and in-
dustrial, artistic and anti-artistic ; for serious work and for mere amuse-
ment— in short, there is not a single direction in which men would ex-
ercise their faculties without combining together for the prosecution of
some common aim. Every day new societies are formed, while every
year the old ones aggregate together into larger units, federate across
the national frontiers, and co-operate in some common work.
The most striking feature of these numberless free growths is that
they continually encroach upon what was formerly the domain of the
State or the Municipality. A householder in a Swiss village on the
banks of Lake Leman belongs now to, at least, a dozen different societies
which supply him with what is considered elsewhere as a function of the
municipal government. Free federation of independent communes for
temporary or permanent purposes lies at the very bottom of Swiss life,
and to these federations many a part of Switzerland is indebted for its
roads and foimtains, its rich vineyards, well-kept forests, and meadows
which the foreigner admires. And beside these small societies, substi-
tuting themselves for the State within some limited Sf)here, do we not
see other societies doing the same on a much wider scale? Each Ger-
man Burrjer is proud of the German army, but few of them know how
much it borrows of its force from the numberless private societies for
military studies, exercise, and games; and how few are those who un-
derstand that their armv would become au incoherent mass of men the
;130 TllK PHILOSOPHY OK AXARCHISM.
clay that each soldier was no longer inspired by the feelings which in-
spire him now ? In this country, even the task of defending the terri-
tory— that is, the chief, the great function of the State — has been un-
dertaken by an army of volunteers, and this army surely might stand
against any army of slaves obeying a military despot. More than that:
a private society for the defense of the coasts of England has been se-
riously spoken of. Let it only come into life, and surely it will be a
more effective weapon for self-defense than the iron clads of the navy.
One of the most remarkable societies, however, which has recently
arisen is undoubtedly the Red Cross Society. To slaughter men on the
battle fields, that remains the duty of the State; but these very States
recognize themselves unable to take care of their own wounded, they
abandon the task, to a great extent, to private initiative. AVhat a del-
uge of mockeries would not have been cast over the poor '' Utopist'' who
should ha\e dared to say twenty-five years ago that the care of the
wounded might be left to private societies ! "Nobody would go in the
dangerous places ! all hospitals would gather where there was no need of
them ! national rivalries would result in the poor soldiers dying without
any help, and so on," — such would have been the outcry. The .war of
1871 has shown how perspicacious those prophets are who never believe
in human intelligence, devotion, and good sense.
These facts — so numerous and so customary that we pass by with-
out even noticing them — are, in our opinion, one of the most promi-
nent features of the second half of our century. The just mentioned
organisms grew up so naturally; they so rapidly extended and so easily
aggregated together; they are such unavoidable outgrowths of the mul-
tiplication of needs of the civilized man, and they so well replace State-
interference, that we must recognize in them a growing factor of our
life. Modern progress is really towards the free aggregation of free
individuals so as to supplant government in all those functions which
formerly were entrusted to it, and which it mostly performed so badly.
As to parliamentary rule, and representative government altogether
they are rapidly falling into decay. The few philosophers who have
already shown their defects have only timidly summed up the growing
public discontent. It is becoming evident that it is merely stupid to
elect a few men, and to entrust them with the task of making laws on
all possible subjects, of which subjects most of them are utterly igno-
rant. It is becoming understood that majority rule is as effective as
any other kind of rule; and humanity searches, and finds, new
channels for resolving the pending questions. The Postal Union
did not elect an international postal parliament in order to make laws
f^r all postal organ zations adherent to the Union. The railways of Eu-
rope did not elect an international railway parliament in order to regu-
late the march of the trains and the repartition of the income of in-
ternational traffic; and the meteorological and geological societies of
Europe did not elect either meteorological or geological parliaments for
scheming polar stations, or for establishing a uniform subdivision of
geological formations and a uniform coloration of geological maps.
They proceeded by means of agreements. To agree together they re-
Tin: pmi,()s(irHY of anarchism. 131
sorted to congresses; but, while sending delegate ; to their congresses,
they did not elect M. P.'s bo)is a tout /aire; the/ did not say to them,
"Vote about everything you like — we shall obey." 1 hey put questions
and discussed them first themselves; then they sent delegates acquainted^
with special questions to be discussed at the congress, and they sent del-
ef/afes — not rulers. Their delegates returned from the congress with
uo htics in their pockets, but with proposals of acjreements. Such is the
way assumed now (the very old way, too) for dealing with questions
of public interest^ — not the way of law-making by means of a repre-
sentative government. Representative government has i ccomplished its
historical mission; it has given a mortal blow to court-rule; and by its
debates it has awakened public interest in public questions. But to see
in it the government of the future socialist society, is to commit a
gross error. Each economical phase of life implies its own political
phase; and it is impossible to touch the very bases of the present eco-
nomical life—private property— without a corresponding change in the
very bases of the political organization. Life already shows in which
direction the change wdll be made. Not in increasing the powers of the
State, but in resorting to free organizatioi and free federation in all
those branches which are now considered as attributions of the State.
The objections to the above may be easily foreseen. It will be
said of course: ''But what is to be done wit'.i those who do not keep
their agreements? What with those who are not inclined to work?
What with those who would prefer breaking the written laws of soci^
ety, or, in the anarchist hypothesis, its unwritten customs? Anarchy
may be good for a higher humanity, not for the men of our own times."
First of all there are two kinds of agreements ; there is the free
one which is entered upon by free coiisent, as a free choice between dif-
ferent courses equally open before each of the agreeing parties; and there
is the enforced agreement, imposed by one party upon the other, and
accepted by the latter from sheer necessity; in fact, it is no agreement
at all; it is a mere submission to necessity. Unhappily, the great bulk
of what are now described as agreements belong to the latter category,
When a workman sells his labor to an employer, and knows perfectly
well that some part of the value of his produce will be unjustly taken
by the employer; when he sells it without even the slightest guarantee
of being employed so much as six consecutive months, and he is com-
pelled to do so because he and his family would otherwise starve
next week — it is a sad mockery to call that a free contract. Modern
economists may call it free, but the father of political economy — Adam
Smith — w^as never guilty of such a misrepresentation. As long as
three-quarters of humanity are compelled to enter into agreements of
that description, force is, of course, necessary, both to enforce the sup-
posed agreements and to maintain such a state of things. Force — and
a good deal of force — is necessary for preventing the laborers from tak-
ing possession of what they consider unjustly appropriated by the few;
and force is necessary for always bringing new "uncivilized nations un-
der the same conditions. The Spencerian no-force party perfectly well
understand that; and while they advocate no force for changing the ex-
232 THK I'HILOSOI'ltV OF ANARCHISM.
isting conditions, tliej advocate still more force than is now used for
maintaining them. As to anarch}^, it is obviously as incompatible with
plutocracy as with any kind of cracy.
But we do not see the necessity of force for enforcing agreements
freely entered upon. We never heard of a penalty imposed on a man
who belonged to the crew of a lifeboat and at a given moment preferred
to abandon the association. All that his comrades would do with him,
if he were guilty of a gross neglect, would be probably to refuse further
to do anything with him. Nor did we hear of fines imposed on a con-
tributor of Mr. Murray's Dictionary for a delay in his work, or of
gendarmes driving the volunteers of Garibaldi to the battle-fields. Free
agreements need not be enforced.
As to the so-often repeated objection that nobody would labor if
he were not compelled to do so by sheer necessity, we heard enough of
it before the emancipation of slaves in America, as well as before the
emancipation of serfs in Russia; and we have had the opportunity of
appreciating it at its just value. So we shall not try to convince those
who can be convinced only by accomplished facts. As to those who
reason, they ought to know that, if it really was so with some parts of
humanity at its lowest stages — and yet, what do we know about it ? — or
if it is so with some small communities, or separate individuals, brought
to sheer despair by unsuccesses in their struggle against unfavorable
conditions, it is not so with the bulk of the civilized nations. With us,
work is a habit, and idleness an artificial growth. Of course, when to
be a manual worker means to be compelled to work all the life long for
ten hours a day, and often more, at producinj^^ some part of something
— a pin's head, for instance; when it means to be paid wages on which
a family can live only on the condition of the strictest limitation of all
its needs; when it means to be always under the menace of being thrown
to-morrow out of employment — and we know how frequent are the
industrial crises, and what a misery they imply; when it means, in a
very great number of cases, premature death in a paupers' hospital, if
not in the workhouse; when to be a manual worker signifies to wear all
life long a stamp of inferiority in the eyes of those very people who
live on the work of their '^ hands;''' when it always means the renounce-
ment of all those higher enjoyments that science and art give to man —
oh, then there is no wonder that everybody — the manual worker as well
— has but one dream : that of rising to a condition where others would work
for him. When I see writers who boast that thoy are the workers, and
write that the manual workers are an inferior race of lazy and improv-
ident fellows, I am inclined to ask them. Who, then, has made all you
see round about you: the houses you live in, the chairs, the carpets, the
streets you enjoy, the clothes you wear? Who built the universities
where you were taught, and who provided you with food during your
school years? And what would become of your readiness to '' work,"
if you were compelled to work in the above conditions all your life on
a pin's head? No doubt, anyhow you would be reported as a lazy fellow!
And I afiirm that no intelligent man can be closely acquainted with the
life of the European working classes without wondering, on the con-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 13^
trary, at their readiness to work, even under such abominable condi-
tions.
Overwork is reluctant to human nature — not work. Overwork
for supplying the few with luxury — not work for the well-being of all.
Work, labor, is a physiological necessity, a necessity of spending accum-
ulated bodily energy, a necessity which is health and life itself. If so
many branches of useful work are so reluctantly done now, it is merely
because they mean overwork, or they are improperly orgiinized. But
we know — old Franklin knew it — that four hours of useful work every
day would be more than sufficient for supplying everybody with the
comfort of a moderately well-to-do middle-class house, if we all gave
ourselves to productive work, and if we did not waste our productive
powers as we do waste them now. As to the childish question, repeated
for fifty years (who would do disagreeable work?), frankly I regret that
none of our savants has ever been brought to do it, be it for only one
day in his life. If there is still work which is really disagreeable in
itself, it is only because our scientific men have never cared to consider
the means for rendering it less so ; they always knew that there were
plenty of starving men who would do it for a few pence a day.
As to the third — the chief — objection, which maintains the neces-
sity of a government for punishing those who break the law of society,
there is so much to say about it that it hardly can be touched incident-
ally. The more we study the question, the more we are brought to the
conclusion that society itself is responsible for the anti-social deeds
perpetrated in its midst: and that no punishment, no prison, and no
hangman can diminish the nuiibers of like deeds; nothmg short of a
re-organization of society itself. Three-quarters of all the acts which
are brought every year before our courts have their origin, either directly
or indirectly, in the present disorganized state of society with regard to
the production and distribution of wealth — not in the perversity of
human nature. As to the relatively few anti-social deeds which result
from anti-social inclinations of separate individuals, it is not by prisons,
nor even by resorting to the hangman, that we can diminish their
numbers. By our prisons, we merely multiply them and render them
worse. By our detectives, our *' price of blood," our executions, and our
jails, we spread in society such a terrible flow of basest passions and
habits, that he who would realize the effects of these institutions to
their full extent, would be frightened by what society is doing under
the pretext of maintaining morality. We iiiifst search, for other remedies,
and the remedies have been indicatejd long since.
Of course now, when a mother in search of food and shelter for her
children muijt pass by shops filled up with the most refined delicacies of
refined gluttony; when gori^eous and insolent luxury is displayed side
))y side with the most execrable misery ; when the dog and the horse of
a rich man are far lietter cared for than millions of children whose
mothers earn a pitiful salary in the pit or the manufactory; when each
" modest " evening dress of a lady represents eight months, or one year,
of human labor; when enriciiment on somebody's iiccount is the avowed
aim of the '' upper classes," and no distinct boundary can be traced
134 I'HE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
between honest and dishonest means of making money — then force is
the only means for maintaining such a state of things; then an army
of policemen, judges, and hangmen becomes a necessary institution.
But if all our children — all children are our children — received a
sound instruction and education — and we have the means of doing so;
if every family lived in a decent home — and they could under the present
high pitch of our production; if every boy and girl were taught a handi-
€raft at the same time as he or she receives a scientific instruction, and
not to be a manual producer of wealth were considered as a token of
inferiority; if men lived in closer contact with oue another, and had
continually to come into contact on those public affairs which now are
invested in the few; and if, in consequence of a closer contact, we were
.brought to take as lively an interest in our neighbors' difficulties and
pains as we formerly took in those of our kinsfolk — then we should not
resort to policemen and judges, to prisons and executions. The anti-
social deeds would be prevented in bud^ not punished; the few contests
which would arise would be easily settled by arbitrators; and no more
force would be necessary to impose their decisions than is required now
for enforcing the decisions of the family tribunals of China, or of the
Valencia water-courts.
And here we are brought to consider a great question: What
would become of morality in a society which would recognize no laws
and proclaim the full fi:eedom of the individual? Our answer is plain.
Public morality is independent from, and anterior to, law and religion.
Until now, the teachings of morality have been associated with religious
teachings. But the influence which religious teachings formerly exer-
cised on the mind has faded of late, and the sanction which morality
derived from religion has no more the power it formerly had. Millions
and millions grow in our cities who have lost the old faith. Is it a
reason for throwing morality overboard, and for treating it with the
same sarcasm as primitive cosmogony?
Obviously not. No society is possible without certain principles
of morality generally recognized. If everybody grew accustomed to
deceive his fellow-men; if we never could rely on each other's promise
and words; if everybody treated his like as an enemy, against whom
every means of warfare is justifiable — no society could exist. And we
see, in fact, that notwithstanding the decay of religious beliefs, the
principles of morality remain unshaken. We even see irreligious people
trying to raise the current standard of morality. The fact is that moral
principles are independent of religions beliefs; they are anterior to them.
The primitive Tchuktchis have no religion; they have only supersti-
tions and fear of the hostile forces of nature; and nevertheless we find
with them the very same principles of morality which are taught by
Christians and Buddhists, Mussulmans and Hebrews. Nay, some of
their practices imply a much higher standard of tribal morality than
that which appears in our civilized society. In fact, each new religion
takes its moral principles from the only real stock of morality — the
moral habits which grow with men as soon as they unite to live to-
gether in tribes, cities, or nations. No animal society is possible with-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 1^J5
out resulting in a growth of certain moral habits of mutual support
and even self-sacrifice for the common well-being. These habits are a
necessary condition for the welfare of the species in its struggle for
life — co-operation of individuals being a much more important factor
in the struggle for the preservation of the species than the so-much-
spoken-of physical struggle between individuals for the means of exist-
ence. The " fittest " in the organic world are those who grow accus-
tomed to life in society; and life in society necessarily implies moral
habits. As to mankind, it has, during its long existence, developed in
its midst a nucleus of social habits, of moral habits, which cannot dis-
appear as long as human societies exist. And, therefore, notwithstand-
ing the influences to the contrary which are now at work in conse-
quence of our present economical relations, the nucleus of our moral
habits continues to exist. Law and religion only formulate them and
endeavor to enforce them by their sanction.
Whatever the variety of theories of morality, all can be brought
under three chief categories: the morality of religion; the utilitarian
morality; and the theory of moral habits resulting from the very
needs of life in society. Bach religious morality sanctifies its prescrip-
tions by making them originate from revelation; and it tries to impress
its teachings on the mind by a promise of reward, or punishment, either
in this or in a future life. The utilitarian morality maintains the idea
of reward, but it finds it in man himself. It invites men to analyze
their pleasures, to classify them, and to give preference to those which
are most intense and most durable. We must recognize, however, that,
although having exercised some influence, this system has been judged
too artificial by the great mass of human beings. And finally — what-
ever its varieties — there is the third system of morality which sees in
moral actions — in those actions which are most powerful in rendering
men best fitted to life in society — a mere necessity of enjoying the joys
of his brethren, of suffering when some of his brethren are suffering;
a habit and a second nature, slowly elaborated and perfected by life in
society. That is the morality of mankind; and that is also the moral-
ity of anarchy.
T could not better illustrate the difference between the three sys-
tems of morality than by repeating the following example. Suppose a
child is drowning in a river, and three men stand on the bank of the
river: the religious moralist, the utilitarian, and the plain man of the
people. The religious man is supposed, first, to say to himself that to
save the child would bring him happiness in this or another life, and
then save the child; but if he does so, he is merely a good reckoner, no
more. Then comes the utilitarian, who is supposed to reason thus:
" The enjoyments of life may be of the higher and of the lower descrip-
tion. To save the child would assure me the higher enjoymeat. There-
fore, let me jump in the river." But, admitting that there ever was a
man who reasoned in this way, again, he would be a mere reckoner, and-
society would do better not to rely very much upon him; who knows
what a sophism might pass one day through his head I And here is the
third man. He does not much calculate. But he has grown in the
V
y^Cy THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
habit of always feeling the joys of those who surround him, and to feel
happy when others are happy; of suffering, deeply suffering when oth-
ers suffer. To act accordingly is his second nature. He hears the cry
of the mother, he sees the child struggling for life, and he jumps in
the river like a good dog, and saA^es the child, thanks to the energy of
his feelings. And when the mother thanks him, he answers: "Whyl
I could not do otherwise than I did." That is the real morality. That is
the morality of the masses of the people; the morality grown to a habit,
which will exist, whatever the ethical theories made by philosophers,
and ivill steadily improve in jwoportmi as the conditions of our social life
are improved. Such a morality needs no laics for its maintenance. It is
a natural growth favored by the general sympathy which every advance
towards a wider.and higher morality finds in all fellow-men.
Such are, in a very brief summary, the leading principles of anar-
chy. Each of them hurts many a prejudice, and yet each of them re-
sults from an analysis of the very tendencies displayed by human soci-
ety. Each of them is rich in consequences and implies a thorough re-
vision of many a current opinion. And it is not a mere insight into a
remote future. Already now, whatever, the sphere of action of the in-
dividual, he can act, either in accordance with anarchist principles or on
an opposite line. And all that may be done in that direction will be
done in the direction whereto further development goes. All that may
*be done in the opposite way will be an attempt to force humanity to ga
where it will not go.
Petee Kropotkin.
CHAPTER y.
Ak Akarchist ois Anarchy.
[From the Contemporary Review.]
To most Englishmen the word anarchy is so evil-sounding that
ordinary readers of the Contemporary Review will probably turn
from these pages with aversion, wondering how anybody could have
the audacity to write them. With the crowd of commonplace chat-
terers we are already past praying for; no reproach is too bitter for us^
no epithet too insulting. Public speakers on social and political subjects
find that abuse of anarchists is an unfailing passport to popular favor.
Every conceivable crime is laid to our charge, and opinion, too indo-
lent to learn the truth, is easily persauded that anarchy is but another
name for wickedness and chaos. Overwhelmed with opprobrium and
held up to hatred, we are treated on the principle that the surest way
of hanging a dog is to give it a bad name.
There is notliing surprising in all this. The chorus of impreca-
tions with which Ave are assailed is quite in the nature of things, for
. THK PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 137
we speak in a tongue unhallowed by usage, and belong to none of the
parties that dispute the possession of power. Like all innovators,
whether they be violent or pacific, we bring not peace but a sword, and
are in nowise astonished to be received as enemies.
Yet it is not with light hearts that we incur so much ill-will, nor
are we satisfied with merely knowing that it is undeserved. To risk the
loss of so precious an advantage as popular sympathy without first
patiently searching out the truth and carefully considering our duty
were an act of reckless folly. To a degree never dreamt of by men who
are borne unresistingly on the great current of puldic opinion, are we
bound to render to our conscience a reason for the faith that is in us,
to strengthen our convictions by study of nature and mankind, and,
above all, to compare them with that ideal justice which has been slowly
elaborated by the untold generations of our race. This ideal is
known to all, and is almost too trite to need repeating. It exists in
the moral teaching of every people, civilized or savage; every religion
has tried to adapt it to its dogmas and precepts, for it is the ideal of
equality of rights and reciprocity of services. "We are all brethren,'^
is a saying repeated from one end of the world to the other, and the
principle of universal brotherhood expressed in this saying implies a
complete solidarity of interests and efforts.
Accepted in its integrity by simple souls, does not this principle
seem to imply as a necessary consequence the social state formulated
by modern socialists: ''To each according to his needs, from each ac-
cording to his powers?" Well, we are simple souls, and we hold firmly
to this ideal of human morality. Of a surety there is much dross mixed
with the pure metal, and the personal and collective egoism's of families,
cities, castes, peoples, and parties have wrought on this groundwork
some startling variations. But we have not to do here with the ethics
of selfish interests, it is enough to identify the central point of con-
vergence towards which all partial ideas more or less tend. This focus
of gravitation is justice. If humanity be not a vain dream, if all our
impressions, all our thoughts, are not pure hallucinations, one capital
fact dominates the history of man — that every kindred and people
yearns after justice. The very life of humanity is but one long cry for
that fraternal equity which still remains unattained. Listen to the
words, uttered nearly three thousand years ago, of old Hesiod, answer-
ing beforehand all those who contend that the struggle for existence
dooms us to eternal strife: ''Let fishes, the wild beasts and birds, devour
one another — but our law is justice."
Yet how vast is the distance that still separates us from the
justice invoked by the poet in the very dawn of history! How great is
the prr)gress we have still to make before we may rightfully cease com-
paring ourselves with wild creatures fighting for a morsel of carrion! It
IS in vain that we pretend to be civilized, if civilization be that
which Mr. Alfred R. Wallace has described as "the harmony of indi-
vidual liberty with the collective will." It is reaF.y too easy to criticise
contemporary society, its morals, its convent:r:^ns, and its laws, and to
show how much its practices fall short of the ideal justice formulated
l^ THE PHILOSOPHY OK ANARCHISM.
by khinkers and desired by peoples. To repeat stale censures is to risk
bejflg called mere declaimers, scatterers of voices in the market-place.
And yet so long as the truth is not heard, is it not our duty to go on
speaking it in season and out of season? A sincere man owes it to
himself to expose the frightful barbarity which still prevails in the
hidden depths of a society so outwardly well-ordered. Take, for instance,
our great cities, the leaders of civilization, especially the most populous,
a/id, in many respects, tl'e first of all — that immense London, which
^/athers to herself the riches of the world, whose every warehouse is
worth a king's ransom; where are to be found enough, and more
than enough, of food and clothing for the needs of the teeming mil-
lions that throng her streets in greater numbers than the ants which
swarm in the never-ending: labyrinth of their subterranean galleries.
And yet the wretched who cast longing: and hungry eyes on those
hoards of wealth may be counted by the hundred thousand; by the side
of untold splendors, want is consuming the vitals of entire populations,
and it is only at times that the fortunate for whom these treasures are
amassed hear, as a muffled wailing, the bitter cry which arises eternally
from those unseen depths. Below the London of fashion is a London
accursed, a London whose only food are dirt-stained fragments, whose
only garments are filthy rags, and whose only dwellings are fetid dens.
Have the disinherited the consolation of hope? No; they are deprived
of all. There are some among them who live and die in dampness and
gloom without once raising their eyes to the sun.
What boots it to the wretched outcast, burning with fever or crav-
ing for bread, that the book of the Christians opens the doors of heaven
more widely to him than to the rich! Besides his present misery all
these promises of happiness, even if he heard them, would seem the
bitterest irony. Does it not appear, moreover — judging by the society
in which the majority of the preachers of the gospel most delight —
that the words of Jesus are reversed, that the "Kingdom of God" is the
guerdon of the fortunate of this world — a world where spiritual and
temporal government are on the best of terms, and religion leads as
sureii' to earthly power as to heavenly bliss? "Religion is a cause for
preferment, irreligion a bar to it," as a famous commentator of the Bible,
speaking to his sovereign, said it oui^ht to be.
When ambition thus finds its ace >unt in piety, and hypocrites prac-
tice religion in order to give what they are pleased to call their
•conscience a higher mercantile value, is it surprising that the great
army of the hopeless should forget their way to church? Do th y de-
ceive themselves in tli inking that, despite official invitations, they
would not always be well received in the "house of God?" Without
speaking here of churches whose sittings are sold at a price, where you
may enter only purse in hand, is it nothing to the poor to feel tliem-
selves arrested on the threshold by the cold looks of well-clad men and
the tightened lips of elegant women? True, no wall bars the passage,
but an obstacle still more formidable stops the way — the dark atmos-
phere of hatred and disgust which rises between the disinherited and
the world's elect.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 139
Yet the first word uttered by the minister when he stands up in
in the pulpit is "brethren," a word which, by a characteristic differenti-
ation, has come to mean no more than a sort of potential and theoretic
fraternity without practical reality. Nevertheless, its primitive sense
has not altogether perished, and if the outcast that hears it be not
stupefied by hunger^ if he be not one of those boneless beings who re-
peat idiotically all they hear, what bitter thoughts will be suggested by
this word ''brethren" coming from the lips of men who feel so little its
force! The impressions of my childhood surge back into my mind.
When I heard for the first time an earnest and eager voice bes?ech the
''Father who is in heaven" to give us "our daily bread," it seemed to me
that by a mysterious act a meal would descend from on high on all the
tables of the world. I imagined that these words, repeated millions
and milliards of times, were a cry of human brotherhood, and that
■each, in uttering them, thought of all. I deceived myself. With some
the prayer is sincere; with the greater part it is but an empty sound, a
gust of wind like that which passes through the reeds.
Governments at least talk not to the poor about fraternity; they do
not torment them with so sorry a jest. It is true that in some countries
the jargon of courts compares the sovereign to a father whose subjects
are his children, and upon whom he pours the inexhaustible dews of his
love; but this formula, which the hungry might abuse by asking for
bread, is no longer taken seriously. So long as governments were
looked upon as direct representatives of a heavenly sovereign, holding
their powers by the grace of God, the comparison was legitimate; but
there are very few now that make any claim to this qiiasi-diYimtj. Shorn
of the sanctions of religion, they no longer hold themselves answerable
for the general weal, contenting themselves instead with promising
good administration, impartial justice, and strict economy in the
administration of public affairs. Let history tell bow these promises have
been kept. Nobody can study contemporary politics without being
struck by the truth of the words attributed alike to Oxenstjerna and
Lord Chesterfield: " Go, my son, and see with how little wisdom the
world is governed!" It is now a matter of commoif knowledge that
power, w^hether its nature be monarchic, aristocratic, or democratic,
whether it be based on the right of the sword, of inheritance, or of
election, is wielded by men neither better nor worse than their fellows,
but whose position exposes them to greater temptations to do evil.
Raised above the crowd, whom they soon learn to despise, they end by
considering themselves essentially superior beings; solicited by ambition
in a thousand forms, by vanity, greed, and caprice, they are all the more
easily corrupted that a rabble of interested flatterers is ever on the watch
to profit by their vices. And possessing as they do a preponderant
influence in all things, holding the powerful lever whereby is moved the
immense mechanism of the State — functionaries, soldiers, and police —
«very one of their oversights, their faults, or their crimes repeats itself
to infinity, and magnifies as it grows. It is only too true: a fit of
impatience in a sovereign, a crooked look, an equivocal word, may plunge
nations into mourning, and be fraught with disaster for mankind.
140 1""^ PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
English readers, brought up to a knowledge [of biblical lore, will
remember the striking parable of the trees who wanted a king. The-
peaceful trees and the strong, those who love work and whom man
blesses; the olive that makes oil, the fig-tree that grows good fruit, the
vine that produces wine, "which cheereth God and man," refuse to-
reign; the bramble accepts, and of that noxious briar is born the flame
which devours the cedars of Lebanon.
But these depositaries of power who are charged, whether by right
divine or universal suffrage, with the august mission of dispensing
justice, can they be considered as in any way more infallible, or even as
impartial?- Can it be said that the laws and their interpreters show
towards all men the ideal equity as it exists in the popular conception?
Are the judges blind when there come before them the wealthy and the-
poor — Shylock, with his murderous knife, and the unfortunate who has
sold beforehand pounds of his flesh or ounces of his blood? Hold they
always even scales between the king's son and the beggar's brat? That
these magistrates should firmly believe in their own impartiality and
think themselves incarnate right in human shape, is quite natural;
every one puts on — sometimes without knowing it — the peculiar
morality of his calling; yet judges, no more than priests, can withstand
the influence of their surroundings. Their sense of what constitutes
justice, derived from the average opinion of the age, is insensibly
modified by the prejudices of their class. How honest soever they may
be, they cannot forget that they belong to the rich and powerful, or ta
those, less fortunate, who are still on the look-out for preferment and
honor. They are moreover blindly attached to precedent, and fancy that
practices inherited from their forerunners must needs be right. Yet
when we examine official justice without prejudice, how many iniquities-
do we find in legal procedures ! Thus the English are scandalized — and
rightly so — by the French fashion of examining prisoners, those sacred
beings who, in strict probity, ought to be held innocent until they are
proved guilty; while the French are disgusted, and not without reason^
to see English justice, through the English government, publicly
encourage treachery by offers of impunity and money to the betrayer,
thereby deepening the degradation of the debased and provoking acts of
shameful meanness which children in their schools, more moral than
their elders, regard with unfeigned horror.
Nevertheless, law, like religion, plays only a secondary part in con-
temporary society. It is invoked but rarely to regulate the relations
between the poor and the rich, the powerful and the weak. These rela-
tions are the outcome of economic laws and the evolution of a social
system based on inequality of conditions.
Laissez fair el Let things alone! have said the judges of the camp.
Careers are open; and although the field is covered with corpses, although
the conqueror stamps on the bodies of the vanquished, although by sup-
ply and demand, and the combinations and monopolies in which they
result, the greater part of society becomes enslaved to the few, let things
alone — for thus has decreed fair play. It is by virtue of this beautiful
system that a parvenu^ without speaking of the great lord who receives-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 141
counties as his heritage, is able to conquer with ready money thousands
of acres, expel those who cultivate his domain, and replace men and
their dwellings with wild animals and rare trees. It is thus that a
tradesman, more cunning or intelligent, or, perhaps, more favored by
luck than his fellows, is enabled to become master of an army of
workers, and as often as not to starve them at his pleasure. In a word,
commercial competition, under the paternal aegis of the law, lets the
great majority of merchants — the fact is attested by numberless medical
inquests — adulterate provisions and drink, sell pernicious substances as
wholesome food, and kill by slow poisoning, without for one day neglect-
ing their religious duties, their brothers in Jesus Christ. Let people
say what they will^, slavery, which abolitionists strove so gallantly to
extirpate in America, prevails in another form in every civilized coun-
try; for entire populations, placed between the alternatives of death by
starvation and toils which they detest, are constrained to choose the
latter. And if we would deal frankly with the barbarous society to
which we belong, we must acknowledge that murder, albeit disguised
under a thousand insidious and scientific forms, still, as in the times of
primitive savagery, terminates the majority of lives. The economist
sees around him but one vast field of carnage, and with the coldness of
the statistician he counts the slain as on the evening after a great
battle. Judge by these figures. The mean mortality among the well-
to-do is, at the utmost, one in sixty. Now the population of Europe
being a third of a thousand millions, the average deaths, according to
the rate of mortality among the fortunate, should not exceed five mil-
lions. They are three times five millions! What have we done with
these ten million human beings killed before their time? If it be true
that we have duties, one towards the other, are we not responsible for
the servitude, the cold, the hunger, the miseries of every sort, which
doom the unfortunate to untimely deaths? Race of Cains, what have
we done with our brothers?
And what are the remedies proposed for the social ills which are
consuming the very marrow of our bones? Can charity, as asserts many
good souls — who are answered in chorus by a crowd of egotists — can
charity by any possibility deal with so vast an evil? True, we know
some devoted ones who seem to live only that they may do good. In
England, above all, is this the case. Among the childless women who
are constrained to lavish their love on their kind are to be found many
of those admirable beings whose lives are passed in consoling the
afflicted, visiting the sick, and ministering to the young. We cannot
help being touched by the exquisite benevolence, the indefatigable
solicitude shown by these ladies towards their unhappy fellow-creatures;
but, taken even in their entirety, what economic value can be attached
to these well-meant afEorts? What sum represents the charities of a
year in comparison with the gains which hucksters of money and
hawkers of loans oftentimes make by the speculaUons of a single day?
While ladies bountiful are giving a cup or tea to a pauper, or prepar-
ing a potion for the sick, a father or a brother, by a hardy stroke on the
stock exchange or a successful transaction in produce, may reduce to
1^2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
ruin thousands of Britisli workmen or Hindoo coolies. And how worthy
of respect soever may be deeds of unostentatious charity, is it not a fact
the bestowal of alms is generally a matter of personal caprice, and that
their distribution is too often influenced rather by the political and
religious sympathies of the giver than by the moral worth of t lie recipient ?
Even were help always given to those who most need it. charity would be
none the less tainted with the capital vice, that it infallibly constitutes
relations of inequality between the benefitted and the benefactor. The
latter rejoices in the consciousness of having done a good thing, as if hp
were not simply discharging a debt; and the former asks bread as a
favor, when he should demand work as a right, or, if helpless, human
solidarity. Thus are created and developed hideous mendicity with its
lies, its tricks, an?! its base, heart-breaking hypocrisy. How much
nobler are the customs of some so-called ^'barbarous countries" where
the hungry man simply stops by the side of those who eat, is welcomed
by all, .and then, when satisfied, with a friendly greeting withdraws —
remaining in every respect the equal of his host, and fretting under no
painful sense of obligation for favors received! But charity breeds
patronage and platitudes — miserable fruits of a wretched system, yet
the best which a society of capitalists has to offer us!
Hence we may say that, in letting those whom they govern — and
the responsibility for whose fate they thereby accept — waste by want,
sink under exposure, and deteriorate by vice, the leaders of modern
society have committed moral banltruptcy. But where the masters
have come short, free men may, perchance, succeed. The failure of
governments is no reason w^hy we should be discouraged ; on the con-
trary, it shows us the danger of entrusting to others the guardianship
of our rights, and makes us all the more firmly resolved to take our own
cause into our own care. We are not among those whom the practice
of social hypocricies, the long weariness of a crooked life, and the
uncertainty of the future have reduced to the necessity of asking ourselves
— without daring to answer it — the sad question: "Is life worth living?"
Yes, to us life does seem worth living, but on condition that it has an
end — not personal happiness, not a paradise, either in this world or the
next — but the realization of a cherished wish, an ideal that belongs to
us and springs from our innermost conscience. We are striving to
draw nearer to that ideal equality which, century after century, has
hovered before subject peoples like a heavenly dream. The little each of
us can do offers an ample recompense for the perils of the combat. On
these terms life is good, even a life of suffering and sacrifice — even
though it may be cut short by premature death.
The first condition of equality, without which any other progress
is merest mockery — the object of all socialists without exception — is
that every man shall have bread. To talk of duty, of renunciation, of
ethereal virtues to the famishing, is nothing less than cowardice. Dives
has no rigbt to preach morality to the beggar at his gates. If it were
true that civilised lands did not produce food enough for all, it might
be said that, by virtue of vital competition, bread should be reserved for
the strong, and that the weak must content themselves with the crumbs
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 1^43
that fall from the feasters' tables. In a family where love prevails
things are not ordered in this way; on the contrary, the small and the
ailing receive the fullest measure; yet it is evident that dearth may
strengthen the hands of the violent and mr.ke the powerful monopolizers
of bread. But are our modern societies really reduced to these straits?
On the contrary, whatever may be the value of Mai thus' forecast as
to the distant future, it is an actual, incontestable fact that in the civi-
lized countries of Europe and America the sum total of provisions
produced, or received in exchange for manufactures, is more than
enough for the sustenance of the people. Even in times of partial
dearth the granaries and wtirehouses have but to open their doors that
every one may have a sufficient share. Notwithstanding waste and
prodigality, despite the enormous losses arising from moving about and
"handling" in warehouses and shops, there is always enough to feed
generously all the world. And yet there are some who die of hunger!
And yet there are fathers who kill their children because when the little
ones cry for bread they have none to give them.
Others may turn their eyes from these horrors; we socialists look
them full in the face, and seek out their cause. That cause is the
monopoly of the soil, the appropriation by a few of the land which
belongs to all. We anarchists are not the only ones to say it: the cry for
nationalization of the land is rising so high that all may hear it who
do not wilfully ck s ) their ears. The idea spreads fast, for private
property, in its present form, has had its day, and historians are every-
where testifying that the old Roman law is not synonymous with
eternal justice. Without doubt it were vain to hope that holders of the
soil, saturated, so to speak, with ideas of cast, of privilege and of
inheritance, will voluntarily give back to all the bread -yielding fu^•o^■♦o;
the glory will not be theirs of joining as equals their fellow-citizens;
but when public opinion is ripe — and day by day it grows — individuals
will oppose in vain the general concourse of wills, and the nxe will be
applied to the upas tree's roots. Arable land will be held once more in
common; but instead of being ploughed and sown almost at hazard by
ignorant hands, as it has hitherto been, science will aid us in the choice of
climate, of soils, of methods of culture, of fertilizers, and of maphinery.
Husbandry will be guided by the same prescience as mechanical com-
binations and chemical operations; but the fruits of his toil will not be
lost to the laborer. Many so-called savage societies hold their land
in common, and humble though in our eyes they may seem, they
are our betters in this: want among them is unknown. Are we; then,
too ambitious in desiring to attain a social state which shall add to
the conquests of civilization the privileges of these primitive tribes?
Through the education of our children we may to some extent fashion
the future. ■
After we have bread for all, we shall require something more —
equality of rights: but this noint will soon be realized, for a man who
needs not incline himself before his fellows to crave a pittande is already
their equal. Equality of conditions, which is in no way incompatible
with the infinite diversity of human character, we ardently desire and
144 "^^^ PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
look upon as indispensable, for it offers us tho :)nly means whereby a
true public morality can be developed. A man can be truly moral only
when he is his own master. From the moment when he awakens to a
comprehension of that which is equitable and good it is for him to direct
his own movements, to seek in his conscience reasons for his actions,
and to perform them simply without either fearing punishment or
looking for reward. Nevertheless his will cannot fail to be strength-
ened when he sees other men, guided like himself by their own volition,
following the same line of conduct. Mutual example will soon consti-
tute a collective code of ethics to which all may conform without effort;
but the moment that orders, enforced by legal penalties, replace the per-
sonal impulses of the conscience, there is an end to morality. Hence
the saying of the apostle of the Gentiles, "the law makes sin." Even
more, it is sin itself, because, instead of appealing to man's better part,
to his bold initiative, it appeals to his worst — it rules by fear. It thus
behooves every one to resist laws that he has not made, and to defend
his personal rights, which are also the rights of others. People often
speak of the antagonism between rights and duties. It is an empty
phrase; there is no such antagonism. Whoso vindicates his own rights
fulfills at the same time his duty towards his fellow-men. Privilege,
not right, is the converse of duty.
Besides the possession of a man's own person, sound morality in-
volves yet another condition — mutual good-will, which is likewise the
outcome of equality. The time-honered words of Mahabarata are as
true as ever: ^'The ignorant are not the friends of the wise; the man
who has no cart is not the friend of him who has a cart. Friend-
ship is the daughter of equality; it is never born of inequality." With-
out doubt it is given to some men, great by their thoughts, hj sympa-
thy, or by strength of will, to win the multitude; but if the attachment
of their followers and admirers comes otherwise than of an enthusiastic
affinity of idea to idea, or of heart to heart, it is speedily transformed
either into fanaticism or servility. He who is hailed lord by the acclama-
tions of the crowd must almost of necessity attribute to himself excep-
tional virtues, or a '' grace of God," that marks him in his own estima-
tion as a predestined being, and he usurps without hesitation or remorse
privileges which he transmits as a heritage to his children. But, while
in rank exalted, he is morally degraded, and his partisans and syco-
phants are more degraded still; they wait for the words of command
which fall from the master's lips; when they hear in the depths of their
conscience some faint note of dissent, it is stifled; they become practiced
liars, they stoop to flattery, and lose the power of looking honest men
in the face. Between him who conimands and him who obeys, and
whose degradation deepens from generation to generation, there is no
possibility of friendship. The virtues are transformed ; brotherly frank-
ness is destroyed; independence becomes a crime; above is either pity-
ing condescension or haughty contempt, below either envious admira-
tion or hidden hate. Let each of us recall the past and ask ourselves
in all sincerity this question: ''Who are the men in whose society we
have experienced the most pleasure? Are they personages who have
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 245
'honored' us with their conversation, or the humble with whom we
have ' deigned ' to associate ? Are they not rather our equals, those
whose looks neither implore nor command, and whom we may love with
open hearts without afterthouo:ht or reserve?"
It is to live in condition of equality and escape from the falsehoods
and hypocrisies of a society of superiors and inferiors, that so many
men and women have formed themselves into close corporations and
little worlds apart. America abounds in communities of this sort. But
these societies, few of which prosper while many perish, are all ruled
more or less by force; they carry within themselves the seeds of their
own dissolution, and are reabsorbed by nature's law of gravitation into
the world which they have left. Yet even were they perfection, if man
enjoyed in them the highest happiness of which his nature is capable,
they would be none the less obnoxious to the charge of selfish isolation,
of raising a wall between themselves and the rest of their race; their
pleasures are egotistical, and devotion to the cause of humanity would
draw back the best of them into the great struggle.
As for us anarchists, never will we separate ourselves from the
world to build a little church, hidden in some vast wilderness. Here is
the fighting ground, and we remain in the ranks, ready to give
our help wherever it may be most needed. We do not cherish prema-
ture hopes, but we know that our efforts will not be lost. Many of the
ignorant, who either out of love of routine or simplicity of soul now
anathematize us, will end by associating themselves with our cause.
For every man whom circumstances permit to join as freely, hundreds
are hindered by the hard necessities of life from openly avowing their
opinions, but they listen from afar and cheris^h our words in the treasury
of their hearts. We know that we are defending the cause of the poor,
the disinherited, the suffering ; we are seeking to restore to them the
earth, personal rights, confidence in the future ; and is it not natural that
they should encourage us by look and gesture, even when they dare not
come to us? In times of trouble, when the iron hand of might loosens
its hold, and paralyzed rulers reel under the weight of their own power;
when the " groups," freed for an instant from the pressure above, reform
themselves according to their natural affinities, on which side will be the
many? Though making no pretension to prophetic insight, may we
not venture without temerity to say that the great multitude would join
our ranks? Albeit they never weary of repeating that anarchism
is merely the dream of a few visionaries, do not even our enemies, by
the insults they heap upon us and the projects and machinations they
impute to us, make an incessant propaganda in our favor? It is said
that when the magicians of the middle ages wanted to raise the devil,
they began their incantations by painting his image on a wall. For a
long time past modern exorcists have adopted a similar method for con-
juring anarchists.
Pending the great work of the coining time, and to the end that
this work may be accomplished, it behooves us to utilize every opportu-
nity for rede and deed. Meanwhile, although our object is to live with-
out government and without law, we are obliged, in many things, to
246 "^ME PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
submit. On the other hand, how often are we enabled to disregard their
behests ai^d act on our own free will? Ours be it to let slip none of
these occasions, and to accept tranquilly whatever personal consequences
may result from doing that which we believe to be our duty. In no case
will we strengthen authority by appeals or petitions, neither shall we
sanction the law by demanding justice from the courts, nor by giving
our votes and influence to any candidate whatsoever, become the authors
of our own ill-fortune. It is also easy for us to accept nothing fron
power, to call no man '' master," neither to be called " master " ourselves,
to remain in the ranks as simple citizens and to maintain resolutely, and
in every circumstance, our quality of equal among equals. Let our
friends judge us by our deeds, and reject from among them those of us
who falter.
There are unquestionably many kind-hearted men that, as yet, hold
themselves aloof from us, and even view our efforts with a certain appre--
hension, who would nevertheless gladly lend us their help were they not
repelled by fear of the violence which almost invariably accompanies^
revolution. And yet a close study of the present state of things would
show them that the supposed period of tranquility in which we live is
really an age of cruelty and violence. Not to speak of war and its
crimes, from the guilt of which no civilized State is free, can it be denied
that chief among the consequences of the existing social system are
murder, maladies and death? Accustomed order is maintained by rude
deeds and brute force, yet things that happen every day and every hour
pass unperceived; we see in them a series of ordinary events no more
phenomenal than times and seascms. It seems no less than impious to
rebel against the cycle of violence and repression which comes to us hal-
lowed by the sanction of ages. Far from desiring to replace an era of
happiness and peace by an age of disorder and warfare, our sole aim is
to put an end to the endless series of calamities which has hitherto been
called, by common consent, *' The progress of civilization." On the
other hand, vengeances are the inevitable incidents of a period of violent
changes. It is in the nature of things that they should be. Albeit
deeds of violence, prompted by a spirit of hatred, bespeak a feeble moral
development, these deeds become fatal and necessary whenever the rela-
tions between man and man are not the relations of perfect equity. The
original form of justice, as understood by primitive peoples, was that of
retaliation, and by thousands of rude tribes this system is still observed.
Nothing seemed more just than to offset one wrong by a like wrong.
Eye for eye! Tooth for tooth I If the blood of one man has been shed,
another must die! This was the barbarous form of justice. Inourciv-^
ilized societies it is forbidden to individuals to take the law into their
own hands. Governments, in their quality of social delegates^ are
charged, on behalf of the community, with the enforcement of justice,
a sort of retaliation somewhat more enlightened than that of the sav-
age. It is on this condition that the individual renounces the right of
personal vengeance; but if he be deceived by the mandatories to whom
he entrusts the vindication of his rights, if he perceives that his agents
betray his cause and league themselves with his oppressors, that official
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. ^^47
justice aggravates his wrongs; in a word, if whole classes and popula-
tions are unfairly used, and have no hope of finding, in the society to
which they belong, a redresser of abuses, is it not certain that they will
resume their inherent right of vengeance and execute it without pity?
Is not this indeed an ordinance of nature, a consequence of the physical
law of shock and counter-shock? It were unphilosophic to be surprised
by its existence. Oppression has always bi'en answered by violence.
Nevertheless, if great hunir.n evolutions are always followed by sad
outbreaks of personal hatreds, it is not to these bad passions that well-
wishers of their kind appeal when they wish to arouse the motive vir-
tues of enthusiasm, devotion and generosity. If changes had no other
result than to punish oppressors, to make them suffer in their turn, to
repay evil with evil, the transformation would be only in seeming.
^-V hat boots it to him who truly loves humanity and desires the happi-
ness of all, that the slave becomes master, that the master is reduced to
servitude, that the whip changes hands, and that money passes from one
pocket to another? It is not the rich and the powerful whom we devote
to destruction, but the institutions which have favored the birth and
growth of these malevolent beings. It is the medium which it behooves
us to alter, and for this great work we must reserve all our strength; to
waste it in personal vindications were merest puerility. ''Vengeance is
the pleasure of the gods," said the ancients; but it is not the pleasure of
self-respecting mortals; for they know that to become their own
avengers would be to lower themselves to the level of their former
oppressors. If we would rise superior to our adversary, we must, after
vanquishing him, make him bless his defeat. The revolutionary device,
" For our liberty and far yours," must not be an empty word.
The peopl3 in all times have felt this; and after every temporary
triumph the generosity of the victor has obliterated the menaces of the
past. It is a constant fact that in all serious popular movements, made
for an idea, hope of a better time, and above all, the sense of a new dig-
nity, fills the soul with high and magnanimous sentiments. So soon a?
the police, both political and civil, cease their functions and the masses
become masters of the streets, the moral atmosphere changes, each feels
himself responsible for the prosperity and contentment of all; molesta-
tion of individuals is almost unheard of; even prjfessional criminals
pause in their sad career, for they toofeel that something great is passing
through the air. Ah! if revolutionaries, instead of obeying a vague
idea, as they have almost always done, had formed a definite aim, a well-
considered scheme of social conduct, if they had firmly willed the estab-
lishment of a new order of things, in which every citizen might be
assured bread, work, instruction, and the free development of his being,
there would have been no danger in opening all prison gates to their full
width and saying to the unfortunates whom they shut in, " Go, broth-
ers, and sin no more."
It is always to the nobler part of man that we should address our-
selves when we want to do great deeds. A general fighting for a bad
cause stimulates his soldiers with promises of booty, a benevolent man
who cherishes a noble object encourages his companions by the example
248 '^'"" PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
of his own devotion and self-sacrilice. For him faith in his idea is
enough. As says the proverb of the Danish peasant: "His will is his
paradise." What matters it that he is treated as a visionary. Even
though his undertaking were only a ciiimera, he knows nothing more
beautiful and sweet than the desire to act rightly and do good; in com-
parison with this, vulgar realities are for him but shadows, the appari-
tions of an instant.
But our ideal is not a chimera. This, public opinion well knows;
for no question more preoccupies it than that of social transformation.
Events are casting their shadows before. Among men who think is
there one who in some fashion or another is not a socialist — that is to
say, who has not his own little scheme for changes in economical rela-
tions ? Even the orator who noisily denies that there is a social question
affirms the contrary by a thousand propositions. And those who would
lead us back to the middle ages, are they not also socialists ? They
think they have found in a past, restored after modern ideas, conditions
of social justice which will establish forever the brotherhood of man.
All are awaiting the birth of a new order of things; all ask themselves,
some with misgiving, others with hope, what the morrow wiil bring
forth. It will not come with empty hands. The century which has
witnessed so many grand discoveries in the world of science cannot pass
away without giving us still greater conquests. Industrial appliances, that
by a single electric impulse make the same thought vibrate through five
continents, have distanced by far our social morals, which are yet in
many regards the outcome of reciprocally hostile interests. The {ixis is
displaced; the world must crack that its equilibrium may be restored.
In spirit revolution is ready; it is already thought — it is already willed;
it only remains to realize it, and this is not the most difficult part of the
work. The governments of Europe will soon have reached the limits
to the expansion of their power and find themselves face to face with
their increasing populations. The superabundant activity which wastes
itself in distant wars must then find employment at home — unless in their
folly the shepherds of the people should try to exhaust their energies by
setting Europeans against Europeans, as they have so often done before.
It is true that in this way they may retard the solution of the social
problem, but it will arise again after each postponement, more formida-
ble than before.
Let economists and rulers invent political constitutions or salaried
organizations, whereby the workman may be made the friend of his
master, the subject the brother of his potentate, we, "frightful an-
archists " as we are, know only one way of establishing peace and good-
will among men — the suppression of privilege and the recognition of
right. Our ideal, as we have said, is that of the fraternal equity for
which all yearn, but almost always as a dream; with us it takes form
and becomes a concrete reality. It pleases us not to live if the enjoy-
ments of life are to be for us alone; we protest against our good fortune
if we may not share it with others; it is sweeter for us to wander with
the wretched and the outcast than to sit crowned with roses, at the
banquets of the rich. AVe are weary of these inequalities which make
THE PHILOSOPHY OK ANARCHISM. ]^49
US the enemies of each other; we would put an end to the furies which
are ever bringing men into hostile collision, and all of which arise from
the bondage of the weak to the strong under the form of slavery,
serfage and service. After so much hatred we long to love each other,
and for this reason are we enemies of private property and despisers of
the law.
Elisee Reclus.
CHAPTER VI.
Dyer D. Lum on^ Anarchy.
[From the Alarm. J
I — WHAT IS ANARCHY.
The statesman, intent on schemes to compromise principles and tide
over clamorous demands for justice, says it is disorder and spoliation.
New taxes are then levied to defend the state, to repress incendiary talk,
and protect privileged prerogatives. Or false and surface issues are pre-
pared to distract attention, to embroil citizens in partisan quarrels, and
furnsh new offices for the spoils-hunter. The people pay the bills and
the statesman remains.
The priest, intent on saving souls, and setting less value on tem-
poral things — for others — says it is abolition of marriage, atheism, and
draws a frightful picture of a state wherein his voice would be derided,
yet ever careful to bring no testimony to corroborate his dismal fore-
l3odings of social chaos.
The financier, intent on new schemes for manipulating public credit
to personal ends, says it means ''a dividing up"; that the lazy and
worthless want to shaKe with the industrious and honest the fruits of
industry; and thousands believe it and never think to ask whether any
one ever saw an anarchist who believed in this fancied '' divvy."'
The landlord, comfortably collecting toll for the use of land from
those who have been placed upon this earth, says it is the destruction of
the foundation and framework of society and removal of all incentive
to progress and then proceeds to invest tolls received in fresh acres.
The merchant seeking by every means to obtain a monopoly of the
market, says it is the negation of freedom, a gigantic despotism in which
life would be burdened with prison rules and social intercourse regulated
with clock -like regularity.
One and all incessantly dinning this into the public ear, their cry
re-echoed by that social prostitute, the '• able editor," in whose sheet
their respective callings are advertised, the timid shrink from the word,
women grow pale, and children learn to believe an anarchist is a first
cousin to Old Nick. And, laughing in their sleeves over their success.
250 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
the statesman lays pipe for a re-election , the priest pictures another
world where corner lots have no speculative value, the financier busies
himself in cutting coupons and computing interest, the landlord in fig-
uring how soon he may safely raise rents, the merchant in converting
^' surplus values " into profits.
In the tenement house human beings are huddled like sheep in a
pen; in the factories women and children crowd out husbands and
fathers; in the potter's field trenches are continually opened and filled;
in the cities vice and crime are spreading gaudy attractions for idle feet;
in the country able bodied men vainly seek employment; men grow dis-
heartened and sullen, women overworked and cross, girls and boys
dejected and lost. Yet while rent and interest are collected and profits
amassed society is safe and law and order secure, though
Our fathers are praying for pauper pay,
Our mothers with Death's kiss are white;
Our- sons are the rich man's serfs by day,
And our daughters his slaves by night.
Yet anarchy will not down, but continues to gain adherents, and
says to the statesman: Your surface issues are dead and party questions
misguiding. We ask justice, and would stop the spoliation from which
we have so long suffered. Producing all; we too often lack food and
warmth and clothing. Where all are prosperous the state must be so
too, and until we are state interests are of secondary importance to us.
It says to the priest: There can be no healthful organization of the
moral 'forces while poverty sets at our hearths and vice beckons our
youth to gayer scenes than home can afford. Give us freedom from un-
requited toil and enforced destitution and our emotional natures will
warm into unity from higher aspirations.
It says to the financier: Your function in society should not be
determined by monopoly, but under equal opportunities. Your privi-
leges are our restrictions; your charters our disfranchisement. We de-
mand freedom to co-operate in financial as in other matters; to co-op-
erate for mutual banking as well as for mutual insurance; and when
you are shorn of privileges we may co-operate to base credit upon all
wealth as well as on that you would dictate, for equal opportunities
would destroy your prerogative to fashion and control a medium of
exchange. Justice would reign and interest cease, because it could not
be exacted.
It says to thelandlord: Equal opportunities give you no monopoly
of the soil. Again, monopoly has conferred a chartered right and men
are disinherited. Destroy this chartered privilege and strong arms will
labor with joy and find in mutua'l credit new avenues to invade the prov-
ince of nature. Co-operation would enlarge production, extend con-
sumption, and equalize distribution. Overproduction and undercon-
sumption would become myths, and demand would seek supply with
unfailing regularity without other guarantee than absence of restric-
toin.
• It says to the merchant: Exchange is a social function, and, m
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 151
the absence of the monopolies of money and land, labor, free from
artificial restriction, free to co-operate in mutual banking to organize
credit based on all products, thus free to connect use with possession of
soil, free from the enforced payment of interest for monopoly
money, free from enforced payment of rent for production, would
through co-operation organize exchanges and leave you free to whistle
for profits.
To them all it says: Gentlemen, we ask no privilege, we propose
no restriction; nor, on the other hand, will we permit it. We have no
new shackles to propose, we seek emancipation from shackles. We ask
no legislative sanction, for co-operation asks only for a free field and no
favors; neither will we peimit their interference.
It asserts that in freedom of the social nnit lies the freedom of the
social state.
It asserts that in freedom to the capitalization of all acquired
wealth lies social advancement and the death of interest.
It asserts that in freedom to possess and utilize soil lies social liap-
piness and progress and the death of rent.
It ' asserts that in freedom to co-operate the labor exchange will
displace the penny-pinching tradesmen and prove the death of profits.
It asserts that in freedom from restriction co-operation will result,
and in free co-operation capital will seek labor as well as provide guar-
antees for security.
K asserts that order can only exist where liberty prevails, and that
progress leads and never follows order.
It asserts, finally, that this emancipation will inaugurate liberty,
equality, fraternity.
n. — WHAT ANARCHY OFFERS.
The world of activity is one of inducements. Why should I do
thus or so? Because my highest interests are concerned. To follow a
given course, to advocate certain measures, there must be sufficient
inducement therein to satisfy my mind that such is for my interest to do
80. We propose no change in human nature, we take it as we find 'it.
and ask: Does anarchism offer any inducements superior to those of
the present system? Can self-interest see any advantage in the change?
It is a question of comparison, of weighing of advantages and disad-
vantages. Self-interest shall be umpire.
Let us see what are the inducements now offered, what are the
prizes in the lottery of life, and the chances of winning them. We
find men placed upon earth dependent upon labor for enjoyment of life.
In our zone nature withholds her gifts and makes them the reward of
exertion. Every faculty of individuality is thus aroused to exertion
and self-reliance developed. We do not pluck and eat, but labor and
152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
develop natural resources, and hence provide. Herein lies the cause of
progress, of civilization. Natural conditions must be accepted and our
activity governed in accordance therewith.
But at the first glance we see that our efforts are limited by artifi-
cial regulations. Nature has placed us upon the earth, but we are
denied its use for productive purposes. We find the source of all pro-
duction resting in land, and on every lot we find the placard: " Taken."'
Nature's gift has been monopolized, and artificial conditions are first to
be surmounted before access can be had to the use of soil. Held, not
for use, but for sale, it assumes a speculative value. Have you a lot, a
homestead left to you? This speculative value extends over to it, in-
creases your taxes, places a fine upon all improvements, and where such
are made requires increased exertions to meet new exactions. Society
says that you have no natural right to the soil. The right to produce
must be bought. You must first accumulate through production before
you can have access to the source of production, hence you must crave
employment. You must realize sufiicient profits from the sale of time
or products before you can purchase the right to produce for yourself.
Therefore, you work for others, and from the values you create there is
diverted one part to the owner of land, from whom you purchase the
right to remain on earth, under the form of rent, and another portion
to the employer as inducement for giving you employment, instead of
starving, under the form of profits. After these requirements are met
you receive wages. And were we studying political economy instead of
glancing at some of its salient points, it would be seen that this applies
as well to the farmer as to the laborer.
The laborer's wages are paid in the form of money, the current
medium of exchange. Advancement lies in saving, in economy, in
postponement of marriage, in accumulating money by which privilege
may be purchased or capital secured. Possession of land is not enough;
there must be joined to it ability to use. But labor saved is only wealth
till turned to reproductive use, when it becomes capital. But here,
again, artificial conditions are introduced. Society in its wisdom
having priviles^ed the landlord, now grants prerogatives to the cap-
italist. It limits the medium of exchangv-^ to a particular form of
wealth. All credit must flow through a specified sluice. A, B, and C
seek through co-operation to escape from the necessity of working for
others. A has wealth saved in a house; B has wealth saved in
machinery ; C has wealth saved in products; all having equal exchangeable
value. But their wealth had cannot be capitalized into wealth used,
save by purchasing monopoly money. As a basis for mutual credit it is
valueless; as a basis for sale or mortgage it can command money, be
capitalized. Thus by this privilege conferred upon one form of wealth
to constitute the sole medium of exchange and basis for credit another
toll is laid upon industry in the form of ^interest.
All these artificial complications by which the surplus value of pro-
duction is diverted from the producer into the coffers of the, so to
speak, complicators of normal social relations require the support of the
source of interf erf:':!ico, hence taxation claims its share before the residual.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 15jJ
sum is dealt out as wages. Therefore it is that, as under slavery and
serfdom, the producer works for as little as may be necessary to support
him. The competition of labor for privilege to live keeps the minimum
of wages at the line of cost of subsistence, while taxation, profits, and
rent have no determinable limit. Labor, lying under all these super-
imposed burdens, paying all these exactions, is necessarily remunerated
by this iron law or wages. Anarchism must offer emancipation from
this enforced subjection of labor to land and capital, and, logically, in
proclaiming emancipation it must proclaim freedom to the oppressed —
liberty !
Emancipation from the thralldom of man to land; the individual
right to possession and use, carrying with it the right to co-operate for
guaranteeing security and protection. Emancipation from the thrall-
dom of man to capital, the individual right to utilize all wealth, and
the right through co-operation to organize mutual credit with the
same facility we are now graciously permitted in mutual insurance.
Emancipation from bondage to rent would base all titles upon
occupancy and use; would open avenues of escape to the toiler, and in
nowise limit the farmer's capacity to produce, nor his ability to enjoy
the reward thereof. In increased production, application to labor
would be lightened, the necessity for struggle lessened, an inflation of
wealth would ensue, distribution be more equitably adjusted, and natural
right to a footing on earth receive social sanction and, through
co-operation, social guarantee.
Emancipation from bondage to interest would join means to pos-
session of the source of production. Co-operative effort would offer
sanction to co-operative credit, and in freedom to capitalize all products
interest would be abolished in the sam^ sense as petroleum " abolished "
candles.
Labor^ free from the exactions of speculative rent, and released
from necessity to buy a monopolized medium of exchange, would offer
as inducements to exertion :
Opportunity to freely enjoy the fruits of industry without paying-
toll.
Opportunity to the endless increase of wants and means to wrest
from nature their supply.
Opportunity to the use of all wealth had in the extension of pro-
ductive activity.
Opportunity to freely co-operate to secure:
1. Protection and security from invasion of these natural rights.
2. Insurance against depredation and risks. 3. A medium of
exchange based upon wealth saved, having social sanction, discharging
social functions, and serving social ends. 4. The organization of
labor exchanges from which profits would have fled to join rent and
interest. 5. The organization of all forms of activity, and thus release
from enforced taxation.
In short, where capital setks labor where supply waits upon
demand, where order follows progress, where authority dissolves under
the genial glow of liberty, and necessity for wage-labor disappears.
J54 '^^^ PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
The present system offers government to defend privilege.
Anarchist-socialism offers co-operation to extend opportunities. The one,
in making co-operation compulsory and fostering privilege, sets a
premium upon greed and culminates in tyranny. The other, in
removing privilege, places a premium upon voluntary co-operation, and
tends to eliminate greed.
III. — WHO SHOULD BE ANARCHISTS?
First, we might ask: Why should there be any? Are not our
cities filled with evidences of ceaseless traffic ? Is not capital ever on the
alert for investment in profitable enterprises? Are not our western
towns rivaling each other in " booms " in real estate, thus testifying to
increasing revival of business? Is not the army of the unemployed
steadily diminishing, and demand for labor increasing? Are not our
public documents teeming with statistical columns showing national
prosperity? The building trades find employment in building new and
grander palaces; in their decoration and furnishing an army of skilled
employes find remunerative labor; in the clothing and adornment of
their inmates thousands are fed and clothed. On every hand new
church spires arise, as if to serve as exclamation points to the astonish-
ment which the voice of anarchy arouses.
Festive revelries were never more frequent; people marry and are
given in marriage, and display to reporters the bridal gifts; luxury is
creating new demands upon industry; salaries of officials and popular
preachers are raised, and pews sell at a higher premium; in fact, every-
thing goes as n^erry as a marriage bell were it not for the discordant
note of frequent strikes.
Ah! Here is a depth which statistical compilations of productions
and exports does not reach, it seems. Let us peer beneath the veneering
of " national prosperity," and see if the structure be sound or worm-
eaten. Let us see if the gilded rays of boulevard prosperity radiates
into tenement-denizened streets and ^'nigger alley"; whether the magic
wand of the speculative genie of the business boom has transformed
these humble homes.
Alas! to ask is to answer; the toiler still delves on in his weary
tread-mill round, and finds advancing age but brings added cares and
disquietudes. To him the business boom and national prosperity are
only visible when seen recapitulated in the eloquent words which flow
from the "able editor's" prostitute pen.
In his thinking monif^nts the artisan dreams of a co-operative so-
ciety in which freemen will combine to wrest from nature her hidden
wealth, in which liberty to labor will no longer be restricted as a boon
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
155
to cravf , in which with manly independence, he may look forward to
the calmer enjoyment of the fruits of industry in old age. Nor stands
he alone. Tlie farmer wonders if his mortgage will ever be paid. The
tradesman asks whether life has no other aim than the constant neces-
sity of counting pennies. The clerk thinks that there cannot be room
at the top for all, and what if he should miss his hold on the ladder?
Through all grades of society unrest prevails, because in all suc-
cess depends upon ability or craft to climb over the fallen forms of
your associates; to rise out of the slough by using them as stepping-
stones, though every upward step plunges them deeper into the abyss.
Modern society, monarchical, parliamentary, and republican alike,
cries with one voice: Law and order first and foremost, liberty and
progress secondary and resultant. Anarchy says: Not so; law must not
deny liberty, order must not precede progress; they are causes, not re-
sults. It proclaims progress first, to which order must adapt itself;
liberty at all times, over which law has no control.
It whispers to the artisan, the laborer, the miner, the factory hand,
the farmer, the tradesman, the clerk, to all whose hearts have not been
seared by the blighting hand of successful greed: Your happiness lies in
freedom from artificial restrictions, not in strife for privilege.
Look over the broad fields teeming with golden grain and then at
the numberless acres held by speculators to extort from human neces-
sity an onerous toll as prerequisite condition to their use to further
increase production. Look over the crowded human bee-hives where the
toilers jostle each other and then at the vacant lots surrounding them,
serving but as receptacles for broken crockery. Ask yourselves by what
title deed has the landlord disinherited you from nature's estate? Has
God set his seal to it? Is nature's sign-manual there? Have you sur-
rendered your natural claim to a footing on earth? Whence, then,
the privilege to him and the restriction upon you? There is but one
answer: The law so ordains!
You dream of co-operation, but when you essay it you find rent
and interest as firmly seated astride your shoulders as was the Old Man
of the Sea upon Sinbad. Not only are you denied possession of the
source of production — land — but monopoly also steps in to dictate
upon what conditions you may have the means of production by con-
ferring the privilege of capital on a certain form of wealth only. Your
buildings, your machinery, your products, your possessions, the reward
of honest industry, may be used, but not capitalized: they cannot be
made the basis of credit except in the terms of the monopoly money
furnished for the purpose of selling to you permission to utilize your
own credit. To the question: Why is this so? again there is but one
answer: The law so ordains!
Instead of praying. From rent and interest, good Lord, deliver us!
strike down that which breathes vitality into their grasping tentacles,
crush it, throttle it, damn it like freemen, and assert your right to co-
operate in producing wealth without making terms with the land-robber,
and to co-operate to furnish mutual credit without paying toll to the
credit robber.
156
THE PHILOSOl'HY ANARCHISM.
Anarchy is freedom from artificial regulation and restriction ; and
in freedom, the farmer, as well as the artisan and all the classes into
which society is now divided, will find that wider scope to activity will
brin^ increased comfort; and in freedom to use of land" and to organize
credit, rent, interest, and profits will disappear together like bats before
the dawning light; and in co-operation find full security for wealth at-
tained and opportunity for its application.
In anarchy labor and capital would be merged into one, for capital
would be without prerogatives and dependent upon labor, and owned by
it. The laborer would find that to produce was to enjoy and the
nightmare of destitution banished. The artisan would find in co-opera-
tion that nature alone remained to be exploited. The tradesman would
find that production offered greater inducement than exchange, unless
he accepted a position of competence and ease in the labor exchange
which would supplant isolated stores. The clerk, no longer with his
horizon bounded by a ribbon counter, would have full scope to dis-
play his talents in any direction. The farmer, above all, free from
irksome care to meet interest, to dread foreclosure from enforced taxa^
tion, with his family growing up around him, and rendered secure by a
common title and rnutual inter-dependence, or seeking in insurance
indemnity for depredation, would find in anarchy release from useless
drudgery and his labor crowned with plentiness and peace.
The only question then likely to arise would be: Who would not
be an anarchist?
IV. CO-OPERATIOX.
Now that questions of forms of faith in theology and government
have ceased to divide men into hostile factions, that political as well as
religious toleration has become firmly rooted as a social virtue, economic
questions rise into greater importance. Here again we find the old
struggle of past centuries under new standards; again liberty is arrayed
against authority on other fields. Co-operation in religion has passed
out of the field of strife and been declared victorious; our creed is no
longer dealt to us. Co-operat on in government has won its place in
the world's history; our rulers no longer claim divine right to govern.
The scaffolding of past centuries has brought mankind to the comple-
tion of the social structure. Reason and intelligence on the one hand
and necessity and discord on the other are instructing them in its aims
and preparing them for the application of the requisite means It is
the dream of the toiler, the hope of the thoughtful, and the goal of the
progressive humanitarian.
How shall we substitute co-operation ? Efforts have been many,
satisfactory results few. ITnforseen obstacles are met to be overcome;
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 157
artificial environments limit freedom of action; chartered privileges
impede progress; restrictions hamper and clog activity.
Co-operation in the distribution of products sacrifices the pro-
ducer to the consumer. Buying at the lowest competition price, and
following current trade principles, it would swell profits for the benefit
of customers. If it tends to lesson prices the consumer, so far as he is
a producer, but gives from one hand what the other hand gains. An
English writer indulges in the following criticism on the system:
The co-operative wholesale society is a gigantic middleman. In its workshops
it pays the lowest of competition wages. In the language of one of the workers in one
of the shoe factories: "The workmen have to work for what they can get; they know
there is no true co-operation.*' In its transactions with other producers it pays the
lowest of competition prices. The profits made out of the retail prices are distrib-
uted among the members; labor is depressed. In short, it is as far from displaying
s. single feature of real co-operation as any private trader is who uses the weapons
of competition and capitalism for his personal ends, regardless of the interests of
others.
Even where success attends the enterprise it can hardly rank as
even ameliorative. . The few, the stockholders, the customers alone
are its beneficiaries; the great mass are left, and further, so far as 'co-
operation lifts a few out of the social slough it is at the expense of
less fortunate fellow-creatures, who find their own fate more irrevo-
cably fixed in becoming stepping-stones upon which the few mount to
privileged enjoyment. Co-operation to eliminate the middleman and
retaining rent and interest is but a sorry makeshift for the bright ideal
our dreams had presaged.
Anarachy presents a wider and grander view of co-operation than
that involved in joint stock or profit-sharing concerns — a view which
requires no elaborate scaffolding to erect nor exercise of legislative
authority to preserve. It seeks no charter, for it asks no privileges; it
seeks no aid, tor it contains within itself capacity to provide for all
needs. All it asks is a free field — the removal of restrictions which
limit its scope and deny it full exercise. And as it finds these restric-
tions in legislative sanction given to privileges, in chartered rights
bestowed upon some, it demands their abrogation.
It claims for co-operation of freeinen ability to discharge any social
function, and as production and exchange are the principal directions
in which modern activity manifests itself it imperatively demands as
means of industrial emancipation that neither shall be endoweil with
privilege, that the source of production and the means of exchange
cannot be subject to letters patent.
With freedom of access to land, to hold for occupancy and use,
resting upon this common title, common needs will draw occupants
and users to co-operate to secure what is beyond the power of the in-
dividual to obtain. The common title would produce independence,
mutual reliance and organization, and precisely as privilege was elimi-
nated fraternity of spirit and common aims would naturally arise.
Co-operation would not have to he invented, it would be evolved; com-
mon needs would require common efforts, and whenever union would
158
THK PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
present benefits unattainable to divided efforts that moment steps-
toward co-operative unity would be taken.
But freedom of land is not enough. Capital, clad in the legalized
armor of monopoly, holding in its power the medium of exchange and
thus imposing a tax upon its use as a means to further production, can
well afford to laugh at the puny effort to co-operate and make it also
tributary to its gains. Again anarchism says to secure perfect co-opera-
tion there must be freedom in financial as well as in other matters. The
privilege bestowed upon gold, by bestowing upon it as if by divine right
a royal crown over other products of labor, has made it the despot of
exchange. Anarchy declares that it has no natural right to the exclu«
sive discharge of this soc"al function over any or all other products;
that so far from facilitating exchange it fastens upon industry the clog
of interest, causing all other wealth to pay tribute to it and at the same
time regulating values by a speculative standard. Anarchy asserts that
in the overthrow of this old superstition, exploded everywhere else save
in financial matters, men will be thrown upon their own resources to or-
ganize mutual credit; that in co-operaton a medium of exchange can be
issued based upon any and all forms of wealth as security, and that in
this ability to capitalize products for purposes of production of in-
creased wealth there will be no monopoly to command interest for use.
Anarchy, therefore, sees in emancipation from the monopoly of land
and credit the opportunity for complete and perfect co-operation. Not
a governmental scheme by which our functions are prescribed but a free
alliance to achieve common ends; not necessarily a unity in one na-
tional association, but co-operation for local or national ends, just as
the need arises, confident that under equal opportunities that which best
discharges its social function will best commend itself for support.
The great trouble is that we have so long been nursed that we
are not yet fully aware of our own capacities. So much have we
been dominated by the state that we have not encouraged self-reliance.
If, however, freedom is preferable to restrictions co-operation can only
be secured by the joint efforts of free individuals, and just so far as the
social units are emancipated from restriction so far will society reflect
that liberty; just so far as the individuals are happy, prosperous, and
moral, so far only will society be happy, prosperous, and moral. Social
virtues are results, not causes.
Liberty, therefore, is the basis upon which true co-operation rests.
To remove the shackles from individual activity in order that co-opera-
tive activity may have natural genesis is the mission of anarchy. It looks
to the state only to abolish privilege; it looks to the freeman for the
co-operative unit. It lays its foundation at the bottom, rather than
beginning at the top to build downward.
In co-operation it sees that which will supplant the state, which
will open avenues to every faculty, provide supply for every demand,
and furnish to all the fullest and freest scope for the development of
individuality, without the necessity of pleading a ''baby act" to invoke
guidance or desire to compel others to follow our co-operative lead
and example.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. Jg^
CHAPTER VIT.
Anabchy.
[From C. L. James' " Tract for the Times."]
Anarchy, from the Groek a or an (not) and arche (the first, the
chief) or a?'c/«o;i (a magistrate), means that state of society in which
there is no government. It is, therefore, very improperly applied to
that state in which there are two or more governments contending for
the supremacy. What anarchists desire is the permanent abolition of
all government. It is contended, and is doubtless true, that this would
involve the abolition of all property, understanding by property, not the
mere right of using or possessing anything (which is inseparable from
man's life on earth), but the right to keep anything, even without using
it, and to impose a tax on whoever does use it, which is derived from
government and law, and not from nature. Hence anarchists are often
called, though I think tautologically, anarchistic socialists, or anarchist'
communists.
* * * * *
By the State socialists, it is proposed that the government should
assume the regulation of all industries, becoming the sole capitalist and
landlord, employing the proletariate^ or actual laborers, with a view to
their own benefit. Now, since State socialism is the natural end of
democracy or ochlocracy^ and since modern governments (the result of
an alliance between the serfs and the bourgeois against the feudal nobil-
ity) are, in the main, domocratic, it need not surprise us to find that our
economic system is, to a great extent, State socialistic, as has been said.
The post office, the tariff, the laws about child labor and female labor,
the regulation of savings banks and other loan offices, the State owner-
ship of the railroads, telegraphs, etc., which exist in so many countries,
are evidently arrangements of this type. And when we hear it proposed
with applause that the government shall take possession of the land it
is evident how popular this remedy for prevailing wrongs is becoming
in America. We often hear it pronounced impracticable. But the
remark needs qualification. Impracticable for good, it may, I fear, be a
"coming slavery" much too feasible for ill. Surely the State socialists
forget to give us their reasons for thinking that the government would
make a better landlord' or capitalist than any other. It cannot, surely,
be the manner in which governments originate that makes them think
so; nor the simplicity of governmental machinery and the directness of
its methods; and if it is the character of the individuals composing the
administration, they must estimate the wisdom and virtue of profes-
sional politicians at a figure which argues very little actual acquaintance
with this class of our fellow citizens. The truth is that their faith in
IQQ THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
government is a superstition, our inheritance from days when kings
were gods. The remarks of Lord Macauley on this point always seemed
to me extremely pertinent. '' It scarcely ever happens that any private
man or body of men will invest property in a canal, a tunnel or a bridge,
but from an expectation that the outlay will be profitable to them. No
work of this sort can be protij:able to private speculators unless the pub-
lic be willing to pay for the use of it. The public will not pay of their
own accord for what yields no profit or convenience to them. There is
thus a direct and obvious connection between the motive which induces
individuals to undertake such a work, and tlie utility of the work. Can
we find any such connection in the case of a public work executed by a
government? If it is useful, are the individuals who rule the country
richer? If it is useless, are they poorer? A public man maybe solicit-
ous about his credit. But * * * the fame of public works is a much
less certain test of their utility than the amount of toll collected at
them. In a corrupt age, there will be direct embezzlement. In the
purest age, there wdl be abundance of jobbing. * * * * In a bad age,
the fate of the public is to be robbed outright. In a good age, it is
merely to have the dearest and worst of everything. * * We firmly
believe that five hundred thousand pounds subscribed by individuals for
railroads or canals would produce more advantage to the public than
five millions voted by parliament for the same purpose. There are cer-
tain old saws about the master's eye and everybody's business in which
we place very great faith." These observations are fully borne out by
the actual result of State socialistic experiments. In Russia, the land
still belongs to the village, and is annually divided among the people by
an elective magistrate. And Russia is the only country left in Europe
which is periodically scourged by famine. In France, after the revolu-
tion of 1848, the government set up workshops known as ateliers^ which
failed to pay their expenses. In our own country, examples crowd on
the memory like shrieking ghosts. The post ofiice, in the more settled
portions of America, is only protected against the competition of indi-
viduals by penal laws. In the wilder portions, it produces more frauds
than any other part of our public institutions, which is saying a great
deal. In all, it is the well-known sanctuary of ofiice brokerage and cor-
ruption. With the best patronized system of schools in the world, we
have, for all the purposes of education, very nearly the worst. The pro-
tective tariff, having destroyed our most thriving industries, such as that
of shipbuilding, has reduced the laborers in all others to '* starvation
wages, '^ as we are every day informed. The subsidies and lands granted
by the government of the nation, states and towns, to railroad and other
corporations, have reduced the agricultural class to a condition not
materially different from that of the serfs in the middle ages. From
experience of the State socialistic tendency on a small scale, we may
infer how it would work upon a great. It would at once create a swarm-
ing army of officeholders, that is, so many more non-producers, for the
rest of us to support. It would create a corresponding multitude of
office-seekers, as if we had not far too many of them already. It would
entail on all branches of business and trade the slowness, clumsiness,
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
161
inefficiency and corruption which always characterize officialism. It
would reduce the standard of labor to the capacity of the least intelli-
gent, industrious and successful workman. It would either require a
system of impressed labor, like that of the Egyptian fellahs, or convert
a large portion of the people into State-supported paupers, desiring only
*' bread and shows." It would paralyze invention, progress and improve-
ment. It would discourage manufactures, continence and luxury, and
promote overpopulation with that slovenly kind of agriculture in which
each family lives on the produce of its own garden patch. Of course,
famines would be frequent. And finally, we should not all be equal, even
in our misery. The new officeholding aristocracy would find aieans to
feather their nests after all. The pons aslnorum of the subject is that
people do not take the trouble to govern for nothing, nor for the mea-
ger wages of republican legislators. Ambition, the love of power, is
what calls government into being; in other words, under no form of
government can the people really be the masters. That the evil conse-
quences of State socialism, predicted here, as they are also by the hour-
geois economists, would not follow from anarchistic socialism, will be
demonstrated in due course.
I am ready now to maintain my thesis — that government can be
abolished, and that there is no necessity for it to be restored. That it
can be abolished is perhaps too readily admitted by most people. We
hear the assertion continually repeated that it has been overthrown and
restored many times; but the truth is that government in general never
was overthrown since it was first established. A government has fre-
quently been overthrown, but always by some hostile, foreign or revolu-
tionary government; and a struggle of two or more rival governments,
such as sometimes followed, is not anarchy, though it has often been so
incorrectly called by historians and publicists. To appreciate the feasi-
bility of abolishing government, we must consider the social changes
which have taken place since it was instituted. All government rests,
as we have said, on armed force, and all governments originated among
savages, except those of new countries, like America, which were
imported by the colonists. Now savages have certain propensities pre-
disposing them to establish government, which civilized men have not,
at least, in the same degree. They are very warlike, often living on
human flesh, by the slave trade or by pillage; while, as wealth increases,
war becomes increasingly inconvenient and undesirable. They are very
patriotic after a narrow fashion, devoted to the tribe, eager to revenge a
family or national wrong, and destitute of any sense of duty toward
foreigners. They have an idolatrous reverence both for the personal
qualities ot a ruler and for all kinds of precedent, custom and authority.
The evolutionary philosopher will see in these traits the instincts of a
gregarious and imitative animal, which loses power as man becomes a
rational and commercial animal, an individualist toward his relations and
neighbors; among strangers, a citizen of the world. Accordingly, with
the progress of civilization, the sphere of government and the reverence
for its authority tend to spontaneausly contract. It is true, as a writer
in the Kncydopcpdia Britannka has recently pointed out, that the mere
2^2 "^"^ PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
number of laws of the State socialistic Vp^v ^J which, modern govern-
ments encroach on individual freedom, nas, of late, materially increased.
But the magnitude of those relations which governments, as a rule,
have, at least partially, ceased to regulate, such as religion, contract,
foreign trade, speech, literature^ bequest, marriage, far exceeds that of
th^r encroachments. And, besides, the State socialistic arrangements
of modern times are, at least ostensibly, in the interest of freedom. They
are quack remedies for bourgeois tyranny. It by no means follows,
therefore, that government, if abolished now, would be reproduced,
because savages, who were without it, instituted it. The argument is a
familiar fallacy ; a case of undistributed middle. A somewhat similar crit-
icism applies to the argument from the restoration of government after
the quasi-anarchistic revolutions of modern times. If such events prove
anything, they prove, not only that some sort of government, but much
the same kind which previously existed, must be restored. But it was
the bourgeois class which, in every case, effected the restoration. Noth-
ing, therefore, can be inferred as to what will happen when the reign
of the bourgeois terminates, either by its inherent tendencies to decay or
by a forcible revolution. The reign of the bourgeois rests, as we have
said, on gunpowder. It cannot survive the use by the proletariate of a
weapon requiring no capital, and against which gunpowder would be as
impotent as armor and castles against gunpowder. Such a weapon is
dynamite, using that word by a synecdoche to denote all the cheap and
rapid agents of destruction described in Herr Host's now famous pam-
Ehlet. In a war with such weapons, the rich man's capital, instead of
is tower of strength, would be his vulnerable point. And the same
machinery of destruction is destined to remoye the prime reason for the
existence of government by putting an end to international wars. That
war, which has become much less deadly since the invention of long-
range weapons, will cease when the weapons become too deadly to let
sane combatants get together at all, is a commonplace; though, like the
others which we have cited, it is applied only by anarchists.
Thus we come to our last thesis, that after the abolition of govern-
ment, crime, instead of increasing, will be more promptly, humanely
and inexorably dealt with than at present; to which we may add that
all the social functions, as if relieved of an incubus, will work at increased
pressure and with the energy of a new life. There are almost innumera-
ble illustrations of the truth that repression has no tendency to prevent
crime, but that freedom has; that liberty, as Proudhon said, is not the
daughter, but the mother of order.
* * * * *
Anarchy, being universal liberty, would exercise on the human
faculties an effect the reverse of that general paralysis induced by
State socialism, which is universal restraint and regulation. Its prac-
tical effect, if it were peaceably, or even forcibly, established to-morrow,
would be about as follows: The useless class would at once be driven
to work, and the free land would give them abundant opportunities.
The farmer, relieved from his mortgages and taxes, would call on the
country merchant for some unaccustomed luxury, as a meerschaum
s
rilK PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. ] g3
ipc. The answer, at first, would probably be, ''We have none.
Bince law has been abolished, we are afraid of our lives and our
pru|)erty." But the farmer insists, and the merchant at last succeeds
in finding a meerschaum, which he exchanges for the farmer's produce.
Within four-and-twenty hours a score of other farmers come in inquir-
ing for similar luxuries. The merchant writes to his wholesale house,
to report that trade is sensibly reviving. He gets about the same
answer which he gave the farmer. "Since law is abolished, we are
afraid to import." But, in a few days, similar communications come
in from all parts of the country. The wbolesale house determines to
engage an miporting agent; and business resumes with double its
accustomed energy. Rent, which seems so great an evil to Mr.
George, would be no evil if only actual cultivators received it. Of
course, those engaged in trade and transportation could expect no
profit beyond the wages of superintendence. But their success to get-
ting that, ivould depend absolutely upon the value of thei?' services to
the public; ivhile, at present^ the 2)rofits of the capitalist depend^ too
commonly, not on the value of his ivork, but on its noxiousness — that is,
on his skill in making a ''corner," manipulating a legislature, procur-
ing a prohibitory tariff, or in some other way hindering, instead of
facilitating production and trade. The hours of labor would be
reduced to two or three a day. Increased consumption might raise
them, but new machinery would cut them down again. Anarchy, to
be short, is but the laissez faire of the economists, pushed to its logical
result. It requires no one to work who would rather be idle. It
forbids no man to hoard who wants to — if he can stand guard over his
own treasure, or get some one else at his own cost, to do so for him.
It forbids no one to worship the Virgin — or Mumbo Jumbo, if he likes
it better. If one man chooses to get a fine house, while another is
content with beer enough and a lodging in a cellar, the anarchist is
willing that one man should have his liouse, and the other his beer.
Anarchy allows every one to assume authority so far as others are wil-
ling to accept it. Anarchy does not even forbid any one to be a slave
who likes provided his slavery lasts only as long as both slave and
master are content. Similarly, it is willing that men and women
should contract to live together, for a year, a day, a month, an hour, or
as they can agree, }yrovided each expects to take the natural conse-
quences of his or her own wisdom or folly, relieved only by such volun-
tary compassion as he or she can excite among the more experienced.
It has faith enough in women to believe that their absolute freedom
would destroy prostitution. It would also remove all the evils which
attend on marriage. The Malthusian dilemma would solve itself. We
have heard of free trade, free religion, free rum, free love. Anarchy
is free everytliing. It leaves free to commit even arson or murder,
those who choose to run the risk of being lynched, or confined as dan-
gerous lunatics. It sees that competition, if really free, might do as
much good as it does harm. It antagonizes no natural instinct.
Like other systems of philosophy, it recognizes this truth, that all nat-
ural instincts have a normal limit — benevolence and ideality just as
2(34 TllK IMIlI.OSOl^llV OF ANARCHISM.
much as alimentiveness and destructiveness — but it also sees that
natural selection reduces them all to this limit ; and that with this
benificent process arbitrary regulation can only interfere; albeit natural
selection linally governs after all. Anarchy is Liberty; Liberty is
Justice; Justice is Virtue. And it is not the nature of Virtue to hurt
any one. " Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left riches
and honor; her ways are the ways of pleasantness, and all her
paths are Peace."
CHAPTER VITL
The Social Revolution.
"The theory of politics, which has possessed the minds of men, and wliich
they have expressed the best they could in their laws and their resolutions, con-
sider persons and property as the two objects for whose protection government
exists. Of persons, all have equal rights, in virtue of being identical in nature.
This interest, of course, with its whole power demands a democracy. Whilst
the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their
rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns
country. This accident, depending primarily on the skill and virtue of the
parties, of which there is every degree, and. secondarily, on patrimony falls une-
qually, and its rights, of course, are unequal. Personal rights, universally the same,
demand a government framed on the ratio of the census : property demands a gov-
ernment framed on the ratio of owners and the owning. * * *•
" Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.
What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the
word politic , which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that the State
is a trick? — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
'' The achievements of liberty are the epochs of history, Villan-
age, serfdom, and chattel slavery — the past system of labor have forever
disappeared. The laborers of the civilized world have gained the right
to starve." The existing wage-system though it began to supersede
other labor systems in the fifteenth century has by the recent discovery
of steam and electricity applied to machinery been developed enormous-
ly. Production en masse has supplanted the feeble powers of hand
labor until the powers of production and distribution have increased
during the past decade a thousand fold. But the poverty of the produ-
cers remains not only unchanged but intensified. Millions of human
beings die yearly of cold, hunger or exposure. The workers are forced
to subsist upon their wages, and when unable to procure employment
become objects of capitalist charity. Therein the wage-system difPers
from those systems which preceded it. Villanage, serfage, and chattel
slavery secured the laborer his daily bread. The master class were im-
pelled by pecuniary interest to provide for the existence of their labor-
ers. The person of the laborer was held as property and his sickness or
death entailed a pecuniary loss upon the owner. Hence, as property
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AN'AKCHISM.
165
they were cared for, provided for not by themselves, but b^ their
owners. The wage-system changed the relationship by makmg the
laborer a **free" man, dependent upon his wage for subsistence. It
also forced him to compete with his fellow-laborer for the chance to
earn wages — a competition that constantly tended to reduce wages to a
bare subsistence. The competition among the capitalist class — em-
ployers— for control of markets also tended constantly to reduce wages
to the subsistence point. Out of this double competition, — from above
and below — arose the combinations, pools, trusts, syndicates etc, of
capital which has for its object first, — control of markets by regulating
prices, and secondly protection against demands of laborers for better
pay and shorter hours. So likewise, the laborers formed combinations,
unions, etc., their object being to dull the edge of competition among
themselves for opportunities to work and earn wages, and secondly to
check the demands of ^employers for large profits through reduced
wages and increased working hours. On these lines the capital and
labor conflict is always waged sometimes openly, at other times covertly,
but never*ceasing. These antagonisms, inherent to the wage system
creates the class struggle, and throws race in conflict with race, and
nations are by their necessities driven to retard the progress of their
fellows. Each machine, each device added to the processes of produc-
tion and distribution to simplify its methods or increase its power only
serves to intensify the class struggle by sharpening competition.
Monopoly, the first of competition, is the triumph on the economic
battle-field of the best armed, equipped and officered army. The
workers of the whole world constitute the rank and file, and the cap-
tains of industry reap the honors and rewards. The wage-system has
now reached that development where vast numbers of homeless outcasts
in every country, (estimated in the United States alone at more than a
million persons) are driven to steal, beg or starve.
Under the pressure of enforced poverty, the workers engage in
strikes, boycotts and riots. But the vast herd of the proletariat being
unorganized, suffer on, mutely, patiently. The bourgeois (capital-
ist) class are compelled to employ force to suppress the demands or the
laborers for work, or better pay, etc. Thus to-day, in every civilized
country, the wage-system is propped and maintained by bayonets.
Never before in the world's history was society divided into classes upon
the question of economic freedom. The contentions of the past arose
out of interest affecting the ruling class alone, such as foreign or civil
war, forms of government, religious worship, etc. But, now, there is
the one question — economic liberty — arraying upon one side the privi-
leged class and their hired retainers, while upon the other side gathers
the countless host of the disinherited — the wage-workers.
The labor question, growing out of the wage-system of labor is,
therefore, a social, not a political or local or national question, but
international and affecting the whole human race.
The capitalist or wage-system cannot provide for or take care of
the mendicants it creates, fiaving reached its full growth, that is to
say, having concentrated all the means of existence into the hands of a
\QQ THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM.
few who monopolize the wealth created by all, it stands as a barrier
across the pathway of progress and liberty. It cannot be made to serve
or minister to the wants and aspirations of the people. Its tension is
now drawn taut and will snap in twain. Buttressed, walled and
cemented with law — statute law — and government ; with organized
armies of armed officials ; with prisons and poor-houses innumerable it
defies the people, and dares them to touch any of its vested rights.
The hostile attitude of the classes, the growing distrust of the p^eople
toward their rulers, the contempt of the rulers for the people, is the
characteristic of society in every country to-day. The capitalist system
is the essence of force, coercion, authority. No amelioration, no
lightening of the people's burden is possible under it. For the peoples'
— the workers, — complaints it has but one answer — obey !
The capitalist system therefore will inevitably, irresistibly drive the
people into revolt as the last and only recourse to relief from oppres-
sion. The people will then trample the law under foot, they will destroy
government. Coercive control will cease and anarchy — the right to
voluntarily associate— prevail.
Some circumstance, apparently accidental, will precipitate the social
revolt of the people. The miseries which they had endured by reason
of enforced poverty will compel them to give heed to the necessities of
their existence, their primary needs and immediate wants, and as the
social revolution will have been forced upon them by the fact that they
could not attain their natural development in the form of society which
they overthrew in order to make room for liberty and the rights of
man, their first act will, of necessity, be the application of communistic
principles. They will expropriate all wealth; they will take possession
of all foundries, workshops, factories, mines, etc., for in no other way
could they be able to continue to produce what they require on a basis
of equality, and be, at the same time, independent of any authority. The
great warehouses and stores and granaries, filled with what their labor
had produced, with their enormous quantities of food, clothing, etc., for
man s nourishment and protection, will be made to minister freely to
the wants of all. So likewise, the laborers of the agricultural regions,
exploited by landlords and despoiled by money-lenders, will, in their
turn, take possession of the soil which they till, but from which they
did not enjoy the fruits of their toil. Thus there will be no fear for
the morrow and every man will sit beneath his vine and fig tree, with
none to molest or make him afraid. A new race of men and women will
be evolved from the new civilization, whose progress and advancement,
now no longer weighed down with the sorrows and cares of poverty, will
bound forward into the light of intelligence, the happiness of peace, and
the manhood of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality.
Anarchy means without rulers, governors, dictators. Anarchy is
the negation "f tt)rr6, ()f coercion, of authority. Nevertheless, there is
a studied and persistent effort made by those who are interested in per-
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANARCHISM. 16?
petuating society as it is, and who assume to mold or lead public opin-
ion, to impress the uninformed with the idea that anarchy means force,
chaos, disorder. But the readers of these pages will have their minds
disabused of any such error. Anarchy is the opposite of the present dis-
order called '' law and order " — the reverse of legality and its offspring,
privilege. The revolutionists of the coming time are not therefore neces-
sarily anarchists. Far from it. The great mass of humanity who
engage in the revolt against the present social system do not know of
or understand the philosophy or science of anarchism. The revolting
masses will act from impulse, resentment and fear, unconscious of the
final result. The transition, revolutionary period, separating the old
from the new society, will doubtless be a scene of overwhelming dis-
order, war, brute force, carnage and destruction. The social revolt will
cease when the wage system is overthrown, and anarchism will begin
only when the revolution ends — when peace, based on liberty, prevails.
This is anarchism. Anarchy is therefore a state of society at peace
with itself and all the world.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX.
The Philosophy of An^a^rchism.
It will be comprehended by the thoughtful reader, who has perused
these pages thus far, that the popular conception of anarchism is a
mistaken one. An insane anger against personal tyrants, and a
Tague desire to destroy and kill, are not the characteristics of the
philosophy known as anarchy, as a majority of the people up to this
time have been led to believe.
The philosophy of anarchism is included in the one word "Liberty;"
yet it is comprehensive enough to include all things else. No barriers
whatever to human progression, to thought, or investigation, are placed
by anarchism; nothing is considered so true or so certain, that future
discoveries may not prove it false; therefore, it has but one infallible,
unchangeable motto, ''Freedom." Freedom to discover any truth, free-
dom to develop, to live naturally and fully. ■ Other schools of thought
are composed of crystallized ideas — principles that are caught and
impaled between the planks of long platforms, and considered too sacred
to be disturbed by a close investigation. In all other "issues" there is
always a limit; some imaginary line beyond which the searching mind
dare not penetrate, lest some pet idea melt into a myth. Science has
been merciless and without reverence, because it is compelled to be:
the discoveries and conclusions of one day are exploded by the dis-
coveries and conclusions of the next. But anarchism is the usher of
science — the master of ceremonies to all forms of truth. It would
remove all barriers between the human being and natural development.
From the natural resources of the earth, all artificial restrictions, that
the body might be nurtured, and from universal truth, all bars of pre-
judice and superstition, that the mind may develop harmoniously.
It is then the complete opposite of ideas of force and violence.
Force, in invading the rights of individuals, is entirely repudiated;
legalized, national force as well as the irresponsible force of the indi-
vidual. "How then," perhaps the inquirer, even at this stage^ may ask,
"do you reconcile your advocacy of a violent revolution with so peaceful
a philosophy ?"
That force will be used iu the comin^r change, whether we advocate
it or not, is quite evident to students of history; that ther^e is a recon-
cilable reason for our advising people to be ready for it, is shown in
the constant use of force that is, necessary to maintain the present so-
called "order," but actual disorder. Every institution which now works
injustice to human kind is possible only through the violence or threats
(171)
172 APPENDIX.
of violence that are continually exerted. Well-filled armories and well-
drilled regiments are the pillars of class rule, and monopoly rests on
the strength of courts and constabulary.
Force (legalized) invades the personal liberty of man, seizes upon
the natural elements, and intervenes between man and natural laws;
from this exercise of force through governments flows nearly all the
misery, poverty, crime and confusion existing in society. So, wi per-
ceive, there are actual, material barriers blockading the way. These
must be removed. If we could hope they would melt away, or be voted
or prayed into nothingness, we would be content to wait and vote and
pray. But they are like great frowning rocks towering between us
and a land of freedom, while the dark chasms of a hard-fought past
yawn behind us. Crumbling they may be with their own weight
and the decay of time, but to quietly stand under till they fall is to be
buried in the crash. There is something to be done in a case like this
— the rocks must be removed. Passivity while slavery is stealing over
us is criminal. For the moment we must forget that we are
anarchists — when the work is accomplished we may forget we were
revolutionists.
And what of the glowing beyond that is so bright that the Grad-
grinds say it is a dream? It is no dream, it is the real, stripped of brain-
distortions materialized into thrones and scaffolds, mitres and guns. It
is nature acting on her own interior laws as in all her other associations.
It is a return to first principles; for were not the land, the water, the
light all free before governments took shape and form? In
this free state we will again forget to think of these things as "prop-
erty." It is real, for we, as a race, are growing up to it. The idea of
less restriction and more liberty, and a confiding trust that nature is
equal to her work, is permeating all modern thought. From the dark
years — not so long by — when it was generally believed that man's soul
was totally depraved and every human impulse bad; when every action,
every thought, and every emotion was controlled and restricted ; when
the human frame, diseased, was bled, dosed, suffocated and kept as far
from nature's remedies as possible; when the mind was seized upon and
distorted before it had time to evolve a natural thought — from those
days to these latter years the progress of this idea has been swift and
steady. It is becoming more and more apparent that in every wav we
are "governed best where we are governed least."
Still unsatisfied perhaps, the inquirer seeks for details, for ways
and means, and whys and wherefores. How will we go on like human
beings eating and sleeping, working and loving, exchanging and dealing,
without government. So used have we become to "organized authority" in
every department of life that ordinarily we cannot conceive of the most
common-place avocations being carried on without their interference and
"protection.''' But anarchism is not therefore compelled to outline a
complete organization of a free society. To do so with any assumption
of authority would be to place another barrier in the way of coming
generations. The best thought of to-day may become the useless vagary
of to-morrow, and to crystallize it mto a creed is to make it an unwieldy
APPENDIX.
rrs
obstacle as well. Still we may prophesy and conjecture, and while we
believe no great principle is compromised if we say "let the coming free-
men take care or themselves," we may judge from our present knowl-
edge of human characteristics and the action of natural law something
of what future societary arrangements will be. "We can judge of the
future only by the past.^' We can believe it is only necessary to remove
the barriers, to abolish the powers that force man into unnatural chan-
nels, to recognize no " organized authority," and believe that new
systems mil spring spontaneously from the spirit of the times, and the
conditions surrounding the social units — yet we may have logical con-
ceptions of societary arrangements, and the wisdom to give them to in-
quirers.
We judge from experience that man is a gregarious animal, and in-
stinctively affiliates with his kind— co-operates, unites in groups, works
to better advantage, combined with his fellow workmen than when
alone. This would point to the formation of co-operative communities,
of which our present trades-unions are embryonic patterns. Each
branch of industry will no doubt have its own organization, regulations,
leaders, etc.; it will institute methods of direct communication with
every member of that industrial branch in the world, and establish
equitable relations with all other branches. There would probably be
conventions of industry which delegates would attend, and where they
would transact such business as was necessary, adjourn and from that
moment be delegates no longer, but simply members of a group. To
remain permanent members of a continuous congress would be to estab-
lish a power that is certain sooner or later to be abused.
No great central power, like a congress consisting of men who know
nothing of their constituents' trades, interests, rights or duties, would be
over the various organizations or groups; nor would they employ sheriffs,
policemen, courts or jailors to enforce the conclusions arrived at while
in session. The members of groups might profit by the knowledge
gained through mutual interchange of thought afforded by conventions
if they choose, but they will not be compelled to do so by any outside
force.
Vested rights, privileges, charters, title deeds, upheld by all the
paraphernalia of government — the visible symbol of power— such as
prisons, scaffolds and armies will have no existence. There can be no
privileges bought or sold, and the transaction kept sacred at the point
of the bayonet. Every man will stand on an equal footing with his
brother in the race of life, and neither chains of economic thralldom
nor mental drags of superstition shall handicap the one to the advant-
age of the other.
Property will lose a certain attribute which sanctifies it now. The
absolute ownership of it— "the right to use or abuse'" will be abolished— and
possession, use, will be the only title. It will be seen how impossible it
would be for one person to "own" a million acres of land, without a title
deed backed by a government ready to protect that title at all hazards,
even to the loss of thousands of lives. He could not use the million acres
himself, nor could he wrest from its depths the possible resources it con-
174
APPENDIX.
tains. The accidental discovery of a coal field or a gas well could not as
now make one man enormously rich in a moment, the arbiter and master
of several hundred lives, who, robbed of their own rightful inheritance,
are entirely dependent on the will of the lucky man. There will be no
law, of course, to prevent his hiring men to work for him, but as every
man will have an equal chance at mother earth, the probabilities are
that they will have too much business of their own to be hired.
The division of labor now developing in the field of production
already illustrates the benefits of co-operative efforts, and it is quite
evident that future production will be carried on in this line. Commu-
nities and groups will form, and in the interests of those concerned will
make their regulations. All organization will be voluntary, with the
sacred right forever reserved to each individual "to think and to rebel.'*
''But this will create chaos and eternal confusion f the objector will
say. Why should it? It has been seen even under present systems
that liberty of action is a great civilizer. (3ne learns by observation
that it is not the restraints thrown around the individual by laws and
religious creeds, that make him ''good." Often the removal of these
very restrictions renders him surprisingly manful and upright, feeling^
that he is not forced into a path he would tread naturally, if let alone.
It was thought not long ago by nearly all, that to destroy the belief in
an everlasting hell would be to break the bonds which held in check
millions of wicked people ready to plunge into every species of evil,
like a torrent raging onward to its own destruction. There is a benighted
old journal still existing in these latter days which teaches that "hell
and the scaffold are the civilizers of the people." The dear good old
lady with one of the kindest hearts in the world, who said, " If I didn''t
believe in the everlasting punishment of eternal fires, I would do all
sorts of wicked things, steal, lie, murder, dissipate," should become its-
editor.
The belief in a literal place of torment has nearly melted away;
and instead of the direful results predicted, we have a higher and truer
standard of manhood and womanhood. People do not care to go to the
bad when they find they can as well as not. Individuals are uncon-
scious of their own motives in doing good. While acting out their
natures according to their surroundings and conditions, they still believe
they are being kept in the right path by some outside power, some
restraint thrown around them by church or state. So the objector
believes that with the right to rebel and secede sacred to him, he would
forever be rebelling and seceding, thereby creating constant confusion
and turmoil. Is it probable that he would, merely for the reason that
he could do so? Men are to a great extent creatures of habit, and grow
to love associations; under reasonably good conditions, he would remain
where he commences; and if he did not, who has any natural right to
force him into relations distasteful to him ? Under the present order of
affairs, persons do unite with societies and remain good, disinterested
members for life where the right to retire is always conceded. The final
outcome, many disciples of anarchism believe will be communism — the
common possession of the resources of life and the productions of uni-
APPENDIX. l'^5
ted labor. No anarchist is compromised by this statement, who does
not reason out the future outlook in this way; the many of us who do,
are responsible only for our own opinions on the subject.
Many expedients will be tried by which a just return may be
awarded the worker for his exertions. The time check or labor certifi-
cate, which will be honored at the store-houses hour for hour, will no
doubt have its day. But the elaborate and complicated system of book-
keeping this would necessitate, the impossibility of balancing one man's
hour against another's with accuracy, and the difiiculty in determining
how much more one man owed to natural resources, conditions, and the
studies and achievements of past generations, than did another, would,
we believe, prevent this system from obtaining a thorough and perma-
nent establishment. The mutual banking system outlined by W. B.
Greene may be in operation in the future free society. Another sys-
tem, more simple, to the writer appears the most acceptable and likely
to prevail, Members of the groups will carry cards, showing their
standing in their respective societies, and if honest producers, they will
be honored in any other group they may visit, and given whatever
IS necessary to their welfare and comfort.
But, after all, as we grow more enlightened under this "larger
liberty, '^ we will grow to care less and less for that exact distribution of
material wealth, which, m our greed-nurtured senses, seems now so
impossible to think upon carelessly. The men and women of loftier
intellects, in the present, think not so much of the riches to be gained
by their efforts as of the good they can do. There is an innate spring
of healthy action m every human being who has not been crushed and
pinched by poverty and drudgery from before his birth, that impels him
onward and upward. He cannot be idle, if he would; it is as natural for
him to develop, expand, and use the powers within him when not re-
pressed, as it is for the rose to bloom in the sunlight and fling its
fragrance on the passing breeze. The grandest works of the past were
never performed for the sake of money. Who can measure the worth
of a Shakespeare, an Angelo or Beethoven in dollars and cents?
Agassiz said "he had no time to make money," there were higher and
better objects in life than that. And so will it be when humanity is
once relieved from the* pressing fear of starvation, want, and slavery, it
will be concerned^ less and less, about the ownership of vast accumula-
tions of wealth. Such possessions would be but an annoyance and
trouble. When two or three or four hours a day of easy, of healthful
labor will produce all the comforts and luxuries one can use, and the
opportunity to labor is never denied, people will become indifferent as
to who owns the wealth they do not need. Wealth will be below par,
and it will be found that men and women will not accept it for pay, or
be bribed by it to do what they would not willingly and naturally do
without it. Some higher incentive must, and will, supersede the greed
for gold. The involuntary aspiration born in man to make the most
of one's self, to be loved and appreciated by one's fellow-beings, to
"make the world better for having lived in it," will urge him on to
nobler deeds than ever the sordid and selfish incentive of material gain
has done.
176
APPENDIX.
If, in the present chaotic and shameful struggle for existence,
when organized society offers a premium on greed, cruelty, and deceit,
men can be found who stand aloof and almost alone in their determina-
tion to work for good rather than gold, who suffer want and persecution
rather than desert principle, who can bravely walk, to the scaffold for
the good they can do humanity, what may we expect from men when
freed from the grinding necessity of selling the better part of themselves
for bread? The terrible conditions under which labor is performed,
the awful alternative if one does not prostitute talent and morals in the
service of mammon; the power acquired with the wealth obtained by
ever so unjust means, combine to make the conception of free and
voluntary labor almost an impossible one. And yet, there are examples
of this principle even now. In a well-bred family each person has cer-
tain duties, which are performed cheerfully, and are not measured out
and paid for according to some pre-determined standard; when the
united members sit down to the well-filled table, they do not scramble
to get the most, while the weakest do without, or gather greedily around
them more food than they could possibly consume. Each patiently
and politely awaits his turn to be served, and leaves what he does not
want; he is certain that when again hungry plenty of good food will
be provided.
Again, the utter impossibility of awarding to each an exact return
for the amount of labor performed will render absolute communism a
necessity sooner or later. The land and all it contains, without which
labor cannot be exerted, belong to no one man, but to all alike. The
inventions and discoveries of the past are the common inheritance of
the coming generations; and when a man takes the tree that nature fur-
nished free, and fashions it into a useful article, or a machine perfected
and bequeathed to him by many past and succeeding generations, who
is to determine what proportion is his and his alone? Primitive man
would have been a week fashioning a rude resemblance to the article
with his clumsy tools, where the modern worker has occupied an hour.
The finished article is of far more real value than the rude one made
long ago, and yet the primitive man toiled the longest and hardest.
Who can determine with exact justice what is each one's due?
There must come a time when we will cease trying. The earth is
so bountiful, so generous; man's brain is so active, his hands so restless,
that wealth will spring like magic, ready for the use of the world's
inhabitants. We will become as much ashamed to quarrel over its pos-
session as we are now to squabble over the food spread bef re us on a
loaded table.
" But all this," the objector urges, '' is very beautiful in the far-off
future, when we become angels. It would not do now to abolish gov-
ernments and legal restraints; people are not prepared for it."
This is a question. We have seen, in reading history, that wher-
ever an old-time restriction has been removed the people have ?^o^ abused
their newer liberty. Once it was considered necessary to compel men
to save their souls, with the aid of governmental scaffolds, racks and
stakes. Until the foundation of the present republic, it was considered
APPENDIX. ]^~'y
absolutely essential that governments should second the efforts of the
church in forcint^ people to attend the means of grace; and yet it is
found that the standard of morals among the masses is raised since they
are left free to pray as they see fit, or not at all, if they prefer it. It
was believed the chattel slaves would not work if the overseer and whip
were removed; they are so much more a source of profit now that
ex-slave owners would not return to the old system if they could.
So many of the able writers quoted in this book have shown that
the unjust institutions which work so much misery and suffering to the
masses have their root in governments, and owe their whole existence to
the power derived from government, we cannot help but believe that
were every law, every title deed, every court, and every police officer or
soldier abolished to-morrow with one sweep, the people would be better
off than now. The actual, material things that man needs would still
exist; his strength and skill would remain and his instinctive social
inclinations retain their force. Freed from the systems that made him
wretched before, he is not likely to make himself more wretched for
lack of them. Much more is contained in the thought that conditions
make man what he is, and not the laws and penalties made for his guid-
ance, than is supposed by careless observation. We have laws, jails,
courts, armies, guns and armories enough to make samts of us all, if
they were the true preventives of crime; but we know they do not pre-
vent crime; that wickedness and depravity exist in spite of them, nay,
increase as the struggle between classes grows fiercer, wealth greater and
more powerful, and poverty more gaunt and desperate. As an illustra-
tion of this truth, notice the statistics of Warden McClaughrey, given
l)efore the Union League Club of Chicago, a club consisting of million-
aires. He stated that 500,000 criminals in the United States, according
to the best obtainable statistics, are under 21 years of age!
What an army of outcasts! Does any one believe that these young
])ersons deserted peaceful and virtuous walks of life, blessed with love,
home and friends, voluntarily? Or, were they not crowded to the prison
dojrs by the wretched surroundings the present civilisation forces upon
them? Prisons the guardians of the people's morals? The above show-
ing damns forever this idea!
Have we not good reason to believe that the entire abolition of a
centralized power, with all its facilities for granting privileges, for pro-
tecting monopolies and aiding robbers in stealing the people's inherit-
ance, would result in great good to humanity^ bad as it is become
throuo^h long ages of injustice?
Oh, Liberty! No wonder the vision of thy realization is too bright
to be deemed more than a fleeting dream! The weary toiler who now
never thinks of rest, dare not look upon the picture, the sensuous idler
scorns it. But how possible after all! Nature has denied us not one
element towards its realization — man himself lacks not one faculty
towards its appreciation and enjoyment. To know that little children
will no more drudge and wither away in factories and mines; that
women will not slowly coin their, heart's blood over their needle, while
starvation eternally stares in at the door, that strong men will not waste
278 APPENDIX.
their lives in abject slavery or unwilling vagabondage, and that constant,
fear of cold and hunger and homelessness that so petrifies and stupifies
the heart and soul will be banished forever; that women will be freed
from the black clinging trail of the serpent winding through all ages,
the selling of herself for bread or splendor; that genius will, no longer
crushed in the narrow, suffering limits of neglect and poverty, rise to
heights unknown before — is it not worth working, living and dying for?
Ah, no, friends, anarchy is not buried — it is not dead, * * *
A. R. Parso:n^s' Appeal to the People of America.
Fellow Citizens : As all the world knows, I have been convicted
and sentenced to die for the crime of murder, the most heinous offense
that can be committed. Under the forms of law, two courts, viz., the
criminal and supreme courts of the State of Illinois, have sentenced me
to death as an accessory before the fact, to the murder of officer Degan
on May 4, 1886. Nevertheless I am innocent of the crime charged, and
to a candid and unprejudiced world I submit the proof.
In the decision affirming the sentence of death upon me, tlie supreme
court of the State of Illinois says: "It is undisputed that the bomb was
thrown that caused the death of Degan. It is conceded that no one of
the defendants threw the bomb with his own hands. Plaintiffs in error
are charged with being accessories before the fact."
If I did not throw the bomb myself, it becomes necessary to prove
that I aided, encouraged and advised the person who did throw it. Is
that fact proven? The supreme court says it is. The record says it is
not. I appeal to the American people to judge between them.
The supreme court quotes articles from The Alarm, the paper edited
by me, and from my speeches, running back three years before the Hay-
market tragedy of May 4, 1886. Upon said articles and speeches the
court affirms the sentence of death as an accessory. The court says:
"The articles in The Alarm were most of them written by the defendant
Parsons, and some of them by the defendant Spies," and then proceeds
to quote these articles. I refer to the record to prove that, of all the
articles quoted, only one was shown to have been written by me. I
wrote, of course, a great msiny articles for The Alarm , but the record
will show that only one of the many quoted by the supreme court to
prove my guilt as an accessory was written by me, and this article
APPENDIX. 1 79
appeared in Tlie Alarm December 0, 1884, one year and a half before
the Haymarket meeting.
As to Mr. Spies, the record will show that during the three years
I was editor of The Alarm, he did not write for the paper half a dozen
articles. For proof as to this I appeal to the record.
The Alarm was a labor paper, and, as is well known, a labor paper
is conducted as a medium through which working people can make
known their grievances. The Alarm was no exception to this rule. I
not only did not write '' most of the articles," but wrote comparatively
few of them. This the record will also show.
In referring to my Haymarket speech the court says: "To the
men then listening to him he had addressed the incendiary appeals that
had been appearing in The Alarm for two years." The court then
quotes the '• incendiary " article which I did write, and which is as
follows: " One dynamite bomb properly placed will destroy a regiment
of soldiers; a weapon easily made and carried with perfect safety in the
pockets of one's clothing."
The record will show by referring to The Alarm that this is a
garbled extract taken from a statement made by General Phillip Sheri-
dan in his annual report to congress. It was simply a reiteration of
General Sheridan's statement that dynamite was easily made, perfectly
safe to handle, and a very destructive weapon of warfare. The article
in full as it appeared in The Alarm is as follows:
" Dynamite. The protection of the poor against the armies of the
rich. In submitting his annual report November 10, 1884, General
Phillip Sheridan, commander of the United States army, says: ' This
nation is growing so rapidly that there are signs of other troubles which
I hope will not occur, and which will probably not come upon us if both
capital and labor will only be conservative. Still it should be remem-
bered destructive explosives are easily made, and that banks. United
States sub-treasuries, public buildings, and large mercantile houses can
be readily demolished, and the commerce of entire cities destroyed by
an infuriated people with means carried with perfect safety to themselves
in the pockets of their clothing.' "
The editorial comment upon the above, as it appeared in The Alarm^
is as follows: "A hint to the wise is sufficient. Of course General
Sheridan is too modest to tell us that he himself and army will be
powerless in the coming revolution between the propertied and property-
less classes. Only in foreign wars can the usual weapons of warfare be
used to any advantage. One dynamite bomb properly placed will destroy
a regiment of soldiers; a weapon easily made and carried with perfect
safety in the pockets of one's clothing. The first regiment may as Avell
disband, for if it should ever level its guns upon the workingmen of
Chicago it can be totally annihilated."
Again the court says: '' He (Parsons) had said to them (referring
totbe people assembled at the Haymarket) Saturday, April 24, 1886,
just ten days before May 4, in the last issue of The Alarm that had
appeared: ' Workingmen, to arms! War to the palace, peace to the
cottage, and death to luxurious idleness! The wage system is the only
180 APPENDIX.
cause of the world's misery. It is supported by the rich ckisses, and to
destroy it they must be either made to work or die. One pound of
dynamite is better than a bushel of ballots! Make your demand for
eight hours with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalist blood-
hounds— police and militia — in a proper manner.' "
The record will show that this article was not written by me, but was
published as a news item. By referring to the columns of Tlie Alarm
the following editorial comment appears attached to the above article,
viz.: "The above handbill was sent to us from Indianapolis, Ind., as
having been posted all over that city last week. Our correspondent
says that the police tore them down wherever they found them."
The court, continuing, says: "At the close of another article in
the same issue he said; ' The social war has come, and whoever is not
with us is against us.'"" Assistant State's Attorney Walker read this
article i6 the jury, and at its conclusion stated that it bore my initials
and was my article. It is a matter within the knowledge of everyone
then present, that I interrupted him and called his attention to the fact
that the article did not bear my initials and that I was not its author.
Mr. Walker corrected his mistake to the jury.
Now these are the three articles quoted by the supreme court as
proof of my guilt as an accessory in a conspiracy to murder officer
Degan. The record will prove what I say. Now as to my speeches.
All of them, with one exception, purporting to be my utterances at, the
Hay market are given from the excited imagination and perverted mem-
ories of newspaper reporters. Mr. English, who alone took shorthand
notes and swore to their correctness, reports me as saying: " It is time
to raise a note of warning. There is nothing in the eight-hour move-
ment to excite the capitalist. Don't you know that the military are
under arms, and a Gatling gun is ready to mow you down? Was this
Germany, or Russia, or Spain? [A voice: ' It looks like it.'] When-
ever you make a demand for eight hours' pay. or increase of pay, the
militia and deputy sheriffs and the Pinkerton men are called out, and
you are shot and clubbed and murdered in the streets. I am not here
for the purpose of inciting anybody, but to speak out — to tell the facts
as thev exist, even though it shall cost me my life before morning."
Mr. English, continuing, said: "There is another part of it [the
speech] right here. 'It behooves you, as you love your wife and children,
if you don't want to see them perish with hunger, killed, or cut down
like dogs on the street — Americans, in the interest of your liberty and
independence, to arm, arm yourselves !' "
This, be it remembered, is a garbled extract, and it is a matter of
record that reporter English testified that he was instructed by the
proprietor of his paper to report only the inflammatory portions of the
speeches made at that meeting. Mayor Harrison, who was present and
heard this speech, testified before the jury that it was simply "a violent
political harangue," and did not call for his interference as a peace
officer.
The speech delivered by me at the Haymarket, and which I
repeated before the jury, is a matter of record and undisputed; and I
APPENDIX. 281
challenge anyone to show therein that I incited anyone to acts of
violence. The extract reported by Mr. English, when taken in connec-
tion with what preceded and what followed, can not be construed by the
wildest imagination as incitement to violence.
Extracts from three other speeches alleged to have been delivered
by me more than one year prior to May 4, 188(), are given. Two of
these speeches were reported from the memory of the Pinkerton detec-
tive, Johnson. These are the speeches quoted by the court as proof
of my guilt as accessory to the murder of Degan. Where, then is
the connection between these speeches and the murder of Degan? I
am bold to declare that such connection is imperceptible to the eye of a
fair and unprejudiced mind. But the honorable body, the supreme
court of Illinois, has condemned me to death for speeches I never made
and articles I never wrote. In the affirmation of the death sentence the
court has ''assumed,' ''supposed," "guessed," "surmised" and "presumed"
that I said and did "so and so." This the record fully proves.
The court says : " Spies, Schwab, Parsons and Engel were
responsible for the articles written and published by them as above
shown. Spies, Schwab, Fielden, Parsons and Engel were responsible
for the speeches made by them respectively, and there is evidence in
the record tending to show that the death of Degan occurred during
the prosecution of a conspiracy planned by the members of the Inter-
national groups who read these articles and heard those speeches."
Now I defy any on ■ to show from the record the proof that I wrote
more than one of the many articles alleged to have been written by me.
Yet the supreme court says that I wrote and am responsible for all of
them. Again, concerning the alleged speeches, they were reported by
the Pinkerton detective, Johnson, who was, as the record shows,
employed by Lyman J. Gage, vice-president of the First National hank,
as the agent of the Citizens' Association, an organization composed of
the millionaire employers of Chicago. I submit to a candid world if
this hired spy would not make false reports to earn his blood money.
Thus it is for speeches I did not make and articles I did not write I am
sentenced to die because the court "assumes" that these articles influ-
enced some unknown and still unidentified person to throw the bomlj
that killed Degan. Is this law? Is this justice?
The supreme court in affirming the sentence of death upon me,
proceeds to give further reasons, as follows:
"Two circumstances are to be noted: First, it can hardly be said
that Parsons was absent from the Haymarket meeting when he went
into Zepf's hall. It has already been stated that the latter place was
only a few steps north of the speakers' wagon, and in sight from it.
We do not think that the defendant Parsons could escape his share of
the responsibility for the explosion at the Haymarket because he step]ied
into a neighboring saloon and looked at the explosion through a window.
While he was speaking, men stood around him with arms in their
hands. Many of these were members of the armed sections of the Inter-
national groups. Among them were men who belonged to the Inter-
national Rifles, an organization in which he himself was an officer, and
J^^2 APPENDIX.
with which he had been drilling in preparation for the events then
transpiring."
The records of the trial will show that not one of the foregoing
allegations is true. The facts are these: Zepf's hall is on the north-
east corner of Lake and Desplaines streets, just one block north of the
speakers' wagon. The court says: '*It was only a few steps north of
the speakers wagon." The court says further that, " it can hardly be
said that Parsons was absent from the Hayniarket meeting, when he
was at Zepf's hall." If this is correct logic, then I was at two different
places a block apart at the same instant. Truly, the day of miracles has
not yet passed. Again, the record will show that I did not ^' step into a
neighboring saloon and look at the explosion through a window." It
will show that 1 went to Zepf s hall, one block distant, and across Lake
street, accompanied by my wife and another lady, and my two children
(a girl of five and a boy of seven years of age,) they having sat upon a
wagon about ten feet from the speakers' wagon throughout my speech;
that it looked like rain; that we had started home, and went into Zepf's
hall to wait for the meeting to adjourn, and walk home in company
with a lot of friends who lived in that direction. Zepf's building is on
the corner, and opens on the street with a triangular door six feet wide.
Myself and ladies and children were just inside the door. Here, while
waiting for our friends and looking toward the meeting, I had a fair
view of the explosion. All this the record will show.
It would seem that, according to circumstances, a block is at one
time "a few steps," or a ^'few steps" is ''more than a block," as 'the
case may suit. The logical as well as the imaginative faculties of the
supreme court are further illustrated in a most striking manner by the
credence of the court to the "yarn'^ of a reporter, who testifies that
Spies had described to him the " czar" bomb and the men who were to
use them, as follows:
"' He spoke of a body of tall, strong men in their organization who
could throw bombs weighing five pounds 150 paces. He stated that the
bombs in question were to be used in case of conflict witli the police or
militia.'^
The court gives this sort of testimony as proof of the existence of
a conspiracy to murder Degan. Wonderful credulity! To throw a five-
pound bomb 150 paces or yards is to throw it 450 feet or one-quarter of
a mile. Gulliver, in his travels among the Brobdingnagian race, tells
of the giants he met, and we have also heard of the giants of Patagonia,
but we did not know until now that they were Lilliputians as compared
with the "Anarchist Swedes" of Chicago. The court proceeds to say:
" While he (Parsons) was speaking, men stood around him with arms
in their hands.''' The record, as quoted by the court, shows that only
one man flourished a pistol, not a number of men. Again, the court
says: "Most of the men were members of the armed sections of the
International groups/' thus making it appear that many of these men
(when there was only one who was even alleged to have exhibited a
pistol ) were armed.
The court says: "Among them were men who belonged to the
APPENDIX. 183
International Rifles, an armed organization, in which he himself was an
officer, and in which he had been drilling in preparation for the events
then transpiring/'
Now, I challenge the supreme court or any other honorable gentle-
men to prove from the record that there ever existed such an organiza-
tion as that armed section of the American group known as the '' Inter-
national Rifles/' It can not be done. The record shows that some
members of the American group did organize the " International Rifles,''
which never met but four or five times, was never armed with rifles or
any other weapons, and disbanded nearly one year before May 4, 1886.
The Pinkerton man, Johnson, says that dynamite bombs were
exhibited in the presence of the International Rifles. It will take cor-
roborative testimony before the American people will credit the state-
ments of such a man engaged for such a purpose, and it is well
known that supreme courts have decided that testimony of detec-
tives should be taken with great caution.
I appeal to the American people in their love of justice and fair
play. I submit that the record does not show my guilt of the crime
of murder, but, on the contrary, it proves my innocence.
Against me in this trial all the rules of law and evidence have
been reversed in that I have been held as guilty until I proved my
innocence.
I have been tried ostensibly for murder, but in reality for
anarchism. I have been proven guilty of being an anarchist^ and con-
demned to die for that reason. The state's attorney said in his state-
ment before court and jury in the beginning of the trial: "These
defendants were picked out and indicted by the grand jury, they are no
more guilty than the thousands who follow them. They are picked out
because they are leaders. Convict them, and our society is safe." And
in their last appeal to the jury the prosecution said: "Anarchy is on
trial. ■ Hang these eight men and save our institutions. These are the
leaders. Make examples of them." This is a matter of record.
So far as I have had time to examine the record I find the same
fabrications and perversion of testimony against all my comrades as
exists against myself. I therefore again appeal to the American people
to avert the crime of judicial murder, and this appeal I have faith will
not be in vain.
My ancestors partock of all the hardships incident to the establish-
ment of this republic. They fought, bled, and some of them died,
that the Declaration of Independence might live and the American flag
might wave in triumph over those who claim the "divine right of
kings to rule." Shall that flag now, after a century's triumph, trail in
the mire of oppression, and protect the perpetration of outrages and
oppressions that put the older despotisms of Europe to shame?
Knowing myself innocent of crime I came forward and gave my-
:self up for trial. I felt that it was my duty to take my chances with
the rest of my comrades. I sought a fair and impartial trial before a
jury of my peers, and knew that before any fair-minded jury I could
•with little difficulty be cleared. I preferred to be tried and take the
184 APPENDIX.
chances of an acquittal with my friends to being hunted as a felon^
Have I had a fair trial?
The lovers of justice and fair play are assiduously engaged in an
effort to thwart the consummation of judicial murder by the commuta-
tion of sentence to prison. I speak for myself alone when I say
that for this I thank them and appreciate their efforts, but I am an
innocent man. I have violated no law; I have committed no offense
against anyone's rights. I am simply the victim of the malice of those
whose anger has been aroused by the power, strength and independence
of the labor organizations of America. I am a sacrifice to those who
say: "These men may be innocent. No mattter. They are anarchists.
We must hang them anyway."
My counsel informs me that every effort will be made to take this
case before the highest tribunal in the land and that there is a strong
hope of a hearing there. But I am also reliably informed that from
three to five years will elapse before the supreme court of the United
States can hear and adjudge the case. Since surrendering myself to
the authorities I have been locked up in close confinement twenty-one
hours of every twenty-four for six days, and from Saturday afternoon
until Monday morning (thirty eight hours) each week in a noisome
cell, without a ray of sunshine or a breath of pure air. To be com-
pelled to bear this for five, or even three years, would be to suffer a
lingering death, and it is only a matter of serious consideration with
me, whether I ought to accept the verdict as it stands, rather than die
by inches under such conditions. I am prepared to die. I am ready, if
need be, to lay down my life for my rights and the rights of mj
fellowmen. But I object to being killed on false and unproven accusa^
tions. Therefore I cannot countenance or accept the effort of those
who would endeavor to procure a commutation of my sentence to
imprisonment in the penitentiary. Neither do I approve of any further
appeals to the courts of law. I believe them to be all alike — the
agency of the privileged class to perpetuate their power, to oppress and
plunder the toiling masses. As between capital and its legal rights
and labor and its natural rights, the courts of law must side with
the capitalist class. To appeal to them is vain. It is the appeal of the
wage slave to his capitalistic master for liberty. The answer is curses,
blows, imprisonment, and death.
If I had never been an anarchist before, my experience with
courts and the laws of the governing classes would make an anarchist
of me now. What is anarchism ? It is a state of society without any
central or governing power. Upon this subject the court in its affirma-
tion of the death sentence defines the object of the International
Working Peoples' association as follows:
" It is designed to bring about a social revolution. Social revolution
meant the destruction of the right of private ownership of property, or
the right of the individual to own property. It meant the bringing
about of a state of society in which all property should be held in
common."
If this definition is right then it is very similar to that advocated
APPENDIX. XS5'
by Jesus Christ, for proof of which refer to the fourth and fifth chap-
ters of the Acts of the Apostles; also Matthew xxi., 10 to 14; and
Mark xi, 15 to 19.
No, I am not guilty ; I have not been proven guilty. T leave it to you
to decide from the record itself as to my guilt or innocence. I can not,
therefore, accept a commutation to imprisonment. I appeal not for
mercy, but for justice. As for me, the utterance of Patrick Henry is.
so apropos that I cannot do better than let him speak :
'' Is life so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price
of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what
course others may pursue, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
death. A. R. Paksons.
Chicago, III., Sept. 21, 1887. [Prison cell No. 29].
Parsons' Open Letter to Goyernor Oglesbt.
To His Excellencif Richard J. Ogleshy\ Governor of the State of
Illinois — Dear Sir: 1 am aware that petitions are being signed by
hundreds of thousands of persons addressed to you, beseeching you to
interpose your prerogative and commute the sentences of myself and
comrades from death to imprisonment in the penitentiary. You are, I
am told, a good constitutional lawyer and a sincere man. I therefore
beg of you to examine the record of the trial, and then conscientiously
decide for yourself as to my guilt or innocence. I know that as a just
man you will decide in accordance with the facts, the truth, and the
justice of this case. But I write to reiterate the declaration made in
my published appeal to the people of America, September 21, 1887. I
am guilty or I am innocent of the charge for which I have been con-
demned to die. If guilty, then I prefer death rather than to go "like
the quarry slave at night scourged to his dungeon.'" If innocent, then
I am entitled to and will accept nothing less than liberty. The records
of the trial made in Judge Gary^s court prove my innocence of the
crime of murder. But there exists a conspiracy to judicially murder
myself and imprisoned companions in the name and by virtue of the
authority of the State. History records every despotic, arbitrary deed
of the peoples' rulers as having been done in the name of the people^
even to the destruction of the liberties of the people.
I am a helpless prisoner and completely in the power of the author-^
ities, but I strongly protest against being taken from my cell and
carried to the penitentiary as a felon. Therefore in the name of
the people, whose liberty is being destroyed; in the name of peace and
justice, I protest against the consummation of this judicial murder;
this proposed strangulation of freedom on American soil. I speak for
2g() APPENDIX.
myself, I know not what course others may pursue, but for myself I
reject the petition for my imprisonment. I am innocent, and 1 say to
jou that under no circumstances will I accept a commutation to
imprisonment. In the name of the American people I demand my
right, my lawful, constitutional, natural, inalienable right to liberty.
Respectfully yours,
Albert R. Parsoi^^s.
Prison Cell 29, Chicago, 111., October 13, 1887.
Law vs. Liberty.
[The Alarm, Dec. 3, 1887.]
"Anarchy is license," exclaim the law-abiding citizens.
" If this is true, then what in the name of liberty is law?" retort
the anarchists.
What is law? It is a command, an order, and the State enforces
compliance.
What is the State? The legislative^ judicial and executive powers
are what constitute the State. The law is manufactured, "made '^ to
order by the legislators, and then expounded and applied by the judges,
and then enforced or executed by the police, militia, army, and navy.
Law being a command or order to do or refrain from doing some-
thing, it is, therefore, not liberty, but license, and consequently des-
potic. Law^ — statute law — is designed to force or compel some person
or persons to respect and support the privileges it confers upon some
other person or persons. Law— statute law—is license, because it estab-
lishes the inequality of rights and duties, and maintains the inequality
of conditions and opportunities. "Equal rights lender the law, ' is a'
misnomer, since the only function of statute law is the creation of priv-
ileges and inequalities. Law— statute law— is the instrumentality by
means of which people are made to serve and obey, to work and suffer
for other peoples benefit. .Law— statue law— is the denial of a person's
natural, inalienable rights by other persons. There are two kinds of
law— natural and artificial. The artificial or manufactured law als(>
manufactures police, militia^ and prisons. Law— statute law— is "the
coward's weapon, the tool of the thief." Cowardly, because man would
not or could not otherwise degrade, enslave, and murder his fellow man.
Rascally, because without it man would not and could not dominate and
exploit his fellow man. Therefore, " equal rights under the law " means
no more nor less than the rascality necessary to take an advantage and
the cowardly brutality necessary to keep it. This is law; its sole and
only purpose.
Life and liberty insures happiness; privilege destroys both. Law is
privilege, is license. Life is denied to all those who are denied the
«qual right to the free use of the means of existence — capital. Only by
APPENDIX. 187
the nse of the means of subsistence is life possibly maintained; and only
by the equal right to its free use is liberty possible. Happiness is the
child, and its parents are life and liberty. The slave has life. The
freeman possesses both liberty and life. The dependence of one person
upon another for permission to work and eat is the foundation upon
which the wage-slave system of industry is built. Capital is a la\y-pro-
tected institution. It is privileged property. There is no such thing in
nature's law as privilege, chartered rights. This moloch devours nine-
tentlis of the human race, who feed its ravenous jaws with their own
flesh and blood. This beast, '' the property beast,'' is what is otherwise
known as hiAV and government. Law — statute law — is license, because
its sole and only function is to deny the producer the possession and
enjoyment of his product.
Law does not and cannot, in fact, create anything but privile^^es.
Rights exist inherently. Labor, and labor alone, does or can create
wealth, and the wealth-creators are poor by virtue of and solely on
account of law. Law takes wealth from the producer and bestows it
upon the non-})rodacer; it curses industry with poverty and blesses idle-
ness with wealth. Law is the mainspring of everlasting contention
among men. It creates classes, produces masters and slaves; it is the
source of ignorance, disease, crime, war, of every moral, social and phys-
ical evil. Law creates and perpetuates poverty; first, by depriving the
producers and keeping them poor, and, secondly, by preventing the
unlimited application of wealth-creating forces in steam, electricity and
machinery.
Law — statute law — is an insult to our natures, a repression upon
human capacity, and the degradation of social effort. Do away with all
compulsory statutes; abolish all legislative enactments based upon
authority, as a conspiracy against man's ability to co-operate. Liberty
calls out individuality, co-operative activity, and offers scope for the
highest development of our powers. Cease treating men and women as
children. Remove the crutches and society will spontaneously respond
to every new demand, and men and women will walk freely and co-oper-
ate to secure all that is needful,
Albert R. Parsons. .
188 APPKNmX.
Views of General Parsons.
Norfolk, Va., Sept. 16. — Gen. W. H. Parsons, the eldest brother of A.
A. K. Parsons, the condemned anarchist, was interviewed to-day by your cor-
respondent at Newport News, where he holds the position of inspector of
customs and is much respected for his scholarly attainments and his high-
toned deportment. The general has been much averse to being inter-
viewed and until the present has declined to converse with reporters on the
subject of his brother's sentence. On being asked to give a brief outline
of the life of A. R. Parsons he said:
"A. E. Parsons was bom in Montgomery, Ala., June 20, 1848, and
is, therefore, just 39 years of age. He is of pilgrim -father parentage, his
ancestors — five brothers — landing together in 1682 on Narragansett Bay
and their descendents of that name, according to John Mason of Virginia,
who cites the authority of Berknap's "History of New England," were
proverbial for good scholarship and honorable characer. Gen. Samuel
Parsons, from whom Albert's father was named, was a major-general of
the revolutionary war, and his grand-uncle of the same name lost an arm
in the battle of Bunker Hill. Theophilus Parsons, the judicial author, was
the pivot of the law, not only of New England but of American jurispru-
dence in his day. It has been the boast of all of that name in all lands
and states that no one who bore it was ever convicted or justly charged
with a felonious offense.
" Albert R. Parsons, the accused anarchist, is not an exception. He
is a political offender, and not a criminal. We assert this, because the
incidents of his biography, upon which you interrogate me, will demon-
strate this. His father moved to Alabama in 1830. A. R. Parsons was
left an orphan at 4 years of age and joined my family in Tyler, Tex.,
where I was at that time conducting the Tyler Telegraph as owner and
editor. At 12 years of age he entered the Galveston News office and became
a member of the family of its founder and proprietor, the venerable Willard
Richardson, to learn the art preservative of all arts, of which profession
and the Typographical Union he is now a member of high standing as well
as a journalist of ripe experience, and was at the ])eriod of his arrest as
accessory to the tragedy of May 4, 1886."
• '^ Will you give his career' during and since the war?"
"When the war broke out he was only 13 years old, but he joined a
confederate infantry company called the Lone Star Grays. He was with
them over a year and assisted in the capture of Gen, Twiggs. He joined
an artillery company at Sabine Pass under his brother, Capt. Richard
Parsons, who died at his post, of yellow fever. A. R. Parsons then
attached himself to his elder brother's brigade — my own^ — on the west
bank of the Mississippi, in Arkansas, and became a cavalry scout, gradua-
ting after four years service at 17 years of age.
" He edited the Waco Sjjectator in 1 868. His marriage to a Mexican
lady of youth, beauty and genius occurred in Austin, Texas, in 1871, and
is a matter of record in that city, where mi?cegnation is a crime. Her
Spanish and Aztec blood were then never questioned. She speaks the
former language fluently, and was raised an orphan by her uncle, a Mex-
ican ranchero, and lived with him in Johnson county, Texas, until the date
APPENDIX. 189
of her marriage. By her A. B. Parsons has two children, a boy and girl,
aged 8 and 7 respectively, the latter a rare beauty and inheriting the
vivacity of her mother. In 1870 he was elected secretary of the Texas
senate, and the following year was appointed a deputy United States
internal revenue collector. He held this office until he went to Chicago
in 1878, when he resumed his trade as a compositor on the Times.
" In 1876 he joined the socialists. During the labor troubles of the
following year he was held by the chief of police for a speech he had
made to 20,000 laboring men at the Market Square, but was released the
same night. He has been a compositor on the hiter Ocean and the Daily
Neii's. For three years he filled the position of president of the trade
and labor association. He has been nominated for alderman three times,
for congress twice, and once each for sheriff and county clerk. At the
national convention of the socialistic labor party, held at Allegheny, Pa.,
in 1879, he was nominated as the candidate for president of the United
States. At the time of his voluntary surrender to the court he was editor
of the Alarm.''^
"Will you give his disposition and any proof of his aversion to
violence or any words cautioning others against inflicting injury to per-
sons or property ? "
"A. R. Parsons is a philosophical anarchist and claims the gift of
prophecy. He has never counseled revolution, but has prophesied revo-
lution. In the prophetic words addressed to Mr. T. V. Powderly from
the Chicago bastile, July 4, 1886, he said :
" 'Whether we live or whether we die the social revolution is inevi-
table. The boundaries of human freedom must be enlarged and widened.
The seventeenth century was a struggle for religious liberty ; the eighteenth
for political equality, and in the nineteenth century mankind is demand-
ing economic or industrial freedom. The fruition of this struggle means
the social revolution. We see it coming; we predict it; we hail it with
joy. Are we criminals for that?'' '
"As I am myself an old time, original Jeffersonian democrat, believing
that all power where not expressly delegated to the state, is inherently in
the people and not in corporations, and that the ballot is the sole and
final arbiter of any existing grievances, I frequently expostulated with
him on the idea involved in the word anarchy. His invariable reply to
me, with the bars between us and the shadow of the scaffold impending
above him, was:
" 'I am not a revolutionist, for all revolutions are not made by agita-
tors and prophets. They are the creatures of wrongs inflicted by the
privileged few and their tools and agencies, the law-maker, the courts,
and the executive force whether a pliant proletarian guard called police,
or the new organized reserves of the police, known as our militia. I do
not seek to make revolution. We simply see it coming; we predict it.
Am I a criminal for that ? Who dreamed among the masses of events of
1861-5? I now prophesy the downfall of wage slavery or the wage- slavery
system and its replacement by the principle of co-operation and associa-
tion between labor and capital. As I witnessed the overthrow of chattel
slavery and now recognize the divinity which shaped that stupendous re-
sult, so I see that hand in the events, bv no means circumscribed, now
190 APPENDIX.
impending over my native land as well as over Europe — the emancipa-
tion of my own class. Every government, including our own as now
organized, is a conspiracy to enslave labor whether of the hand or brain.
Coercion is the basis of this conspiracy, and hence we would overthrow all
existing law which fosters and maintains it. Labor will fight, but will
only fight in self-defense. The universal depression and suffering and
pauperism in Europe, as well as America, is the source of discontent and
unrest and is fomenting a political cyclone. ' "
" To these views frequently expressed when pressed for his purpose,
I would interpose the plea that the people would yet administer the cor-
rective for existing evils through the machinery of the ballot, as this was
a free representative government, and we could not improve upon its form
as a medium for the expression of the popular will. To this he would in-
variably reply, 'the people will attempt to apply the corrective
through the ballot and will measurably succeed so far as form is concerned;
but,' he would add, 'the vested wrongs of the privileged class, although
in the hands of a very meager minority, will never be relinquished
without coercion, as witness our late civil war. This meager minority
will rebel against the voice and vote of the majority of the people con-
stitutionally expressed. They have the example of a wealthy few in
Rome who organized a mercenary praetorian guard of 10,0()() policemen
to overawe the unarmed populace of the capital and held in their pay the
rival legions recruited from the plebian classes. Here is where and when
the future revolution will be inaugurated. This plutocracy will rebel
against the democratic and republican masses and recruit their mercenary
police and praetorian guards from the very ranks of the men who will
spoliate on both classes.' "
" That is anarchy as taught and understood by A. R. Parsons. I
often pressed him for an exposition of the term anarchism as meant and
believed by him. He invariably replied in substance that the meaning of
philosophical anarchism was the very antipodes of anarchy as defined
and understood by capitalism; that Webster's dictionary gave two mean-
ings— one, without rulers or governors ; and the other, disorder and con-
fusion. The latter he defined as capitalistic anarchy, such as was now
witnessed, he said, in all parts of the world, in all conditions of society
below the privileged classes which had already absorbed and monopolized
all the opportunities of life and the means of existence, except merely to
exist.
" To be without rulers and governors invested with authority to dic-
tate to others against their will and interests, he would say, ' is philosoph-
ical anarchism, and the state of society which the church is constantly
prognostigating will usher in the millenial period when all governments
will be abolished and the principles of Christ, as taught by him of the
brotherhood of man and the supreme fatherhood of the Creator, will be
established. Man is the agency through whom this result will be achieved,
as God works alone by such agencies; and, as without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sins, I believe that the anarchism of the
millenium, when there will be but one invisible ruler and all human
governments overthrown, will be ushered in by the most stupenduous and
bloody revolution in the annals of time. Is it criminal to report the
APPENDIX. UJl
prophecy of the seers and inspired men of the sacred oracles ? Am I to
be executed for predicting that the period when no ruler or law save the
spirit of the Nazarine teacher of good- will on earth and peace to all men
as the fruit of the golden rule of the then common brotherhood of
man is soon to be inaugurated ? Then incarcerate the incumbents of our
pulpits, and again, as of yore, stone the prophets; for so stone they
the prophets, even among his chosen people, when sent to warn them
of judgment to come.'"
" What was his action at the meeting at which the bomb was thrown ?"
"There is no pretence that A. R. Parsons or that any one of the
defendants threw or even knew of the throwing of the fatal bomb. They
are all condemned as supposed, although not proven, accessories, for there
can be no accessories without a principal, and there was not even an
attempt to prove who the principal was. He yet remains unknown, the
circumstantial evidence much more strongly pointing to an agent of the
stock exchanges through Pinkei-ton's mercenaries to break up the eight-
hour movement by charging the offence on the leaders of that movement
in Chicago than to these defendants. The New York Times advised that
very coui'se to involve the leaders and thus break down the eight-hour
movement which was then sustained by 335,000 men. A. B. Parsons re-
hearsed on the trial his Haymarket speech, and it is of record. It was a
strong statistical, philosophical argument. At its conclusion Capt. Black,
counsel for the defense asked : ' When you were referring in your speech
to Jay Gould or to the southwestern system do you remember any inter-
ruption from the crowd or any response ?' to which A. B. replied : 'Yes,
I omitted that in rehearsing my speech before the court just concluded.
Some one said: "Hang Him! hang Gould!" My response to that was
that it was not a conflict between individuals, but for a change of system,
and that socialism designed to remove the cause which produced the
pauper and the millionaire, but did not aim at the life of individuals.'"
"Beporter English of the Chicago Tribune and several other report-
ers present corroborated this statement. In fact is was originally drawn
out of the reporters present before A. B. Parsons took the stand. It wa^
proven by ten witnesses that A. B. Parsons was in Zepf's hall, at the
corner of Bandoiph and Desplaines streets when the shell exploded, and
yet he is condemned to death for having incited some one to throw the
fatal bomb. It was proven that Lingg was two and a half miles away on
Clyboum avenue at that hour; that Schwab was speaking elsewhere,
seven miles distant ; that Engel was with his family at home ; that
Neebe was not even present, and knew nothing of the meeting; that
Parsons had finished and left the ground with his family, and that the only
two of the eight present were Fielden and Spies, and they were on the
speakers' stand when attacked and ordered to disperse by 200 armed
policemen."
"Is it true he voluntarily surrendered ?"
"It is true that conscious of his innocence, A. B. Parsons voluntarily
came into oi)en court on the first day of the trial and took his seat with
the accused defendants at a time when the inflamed prejudices of the
police rendered it doubtful if justice could be rendered with the entire
machinery of the law in their hands. This act tended largely to disarm
192
APPENDIX.
the hostility of disinterested men who believed in fair play, and that justice
should be done though the heavens fall."
" Will the case, in your judgment, be called to the United States
supreme court, and on what grounds ?"
" It will; first, because under the sixth amendment of the federal con-
stitution it is provided that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall
enjoy the right to a trial by an impartial jury of the state and district
where the crime shall have been committed. The fifteenth amendment
provides that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law. If these men are executed the state of
Illinois, through its courts, will have executed seven men without the due
process provided and guaranteed by the constitution, which is the supreme
law and which accords to the accused a trial by an impartial jury. It was
proved on the trial that the special bailiff, Henry L. Ryce, who was
appointed to serve the special venire, said to Otis S. Favor, a reputable
merchant in Chicago, that he was managing the case against the accused
and knew what he was about, and that the accused would hang as cer-
tain as death. ' I am calling such men as the defendants will have to
challenge and so waste their challenges,' he said. This was made a special
ground for a new trial, although Judge Gary had refused the defendants
the privilege to introduce Mr. Otis Favor to prove that the bailiff acknowl-
edged with a chuckle that he was packing the jury so that it would not be
impartial. Juryman Adams admitted before the trial that if he was on
the jury he would hang all of them. This was proved. Juror Denker
stated to two credible witnesses before the trial that the whole d d
crowd ought to be hanged. Several of the jurors, who can be named, as
they are all of record, admitted that they were prejudiced so that it would
take strong evidence to overcome their already predetermined judgment
of their guilt. On this statement of record the fourteenth amendment can
be invoked and a writ of error must issue overruling the action of a state
court, which has doomed seven men to death, having denied them an
impartial trial, as required by the fourteenth amendment of the constitu-
t'ion. Their death would be judicial murder. Such would be the sentence
of mankind and the verdict of history.
"2. There is a precedent from MisiK)uri where a writ of error was
for review by the United States supreme 6ourt on the ground that the
evidence was obtained by unlawful search and seizure, and a violation of
the sanctity of letters unlawfully seized. A letter to Mr. Spies, written a
year before the trial, was seized, after breaking open his private editorial
desk, and was permitted to be read on the trial by Judge Gary, the pur-
pose of which was to show he had received — not answered — a letter from
Herr Most about medicine that was good for the relief of the Hocking
valley strikers of 1885. Evidence obtained by a violation of such safe-
guards to the citizen is a violation of all rights guaranteed by the constitu-
tion. Of course, where courts are now constituted to protect v ested wrongs
in many cases, as witness Justice Field's decisions in California in favor
of the Chinese and in protection of Senator Stanford against the Pacific
commission, there is no way to estimate the result of even an application
for a writ of error in this case. It may be that blood is what is wanted
. > APPENDIX. 193
and blood they must have, and thus verify the saying that ' whom the gods
would destroy they first make mad.'"
"What is your own history and political status?"
" I have held positions of honor under three governors and two pres-
idents, I was on the supreme court bench, a member of the United States
centennial commission, was state senator, was in the Charleston convention
of 1860, and commanded an active cavalry brigade in the confederate
service throughout the war. I am a Jeffersonian democrat and believe the
ballot will yet redeem the nation." — Correspondence Daily News.
Letter to George Francis Train.
Prison Cell 29, Chicago, 111., Oct. 14, 1887.
(Htizen Geo. Francis Train, Champion of Free Speech, Free Press and Public
Assemblage :
Despotism of America's money -mongers again demonstrated. They
deny the right of the people to assemble to hear you speak to them. Free
speech! They will not allow the people to buy or read the Psycho-
Anarchist. Free press ! They interdict the right of the people to assemble
and petition for redress of grievances. Right of assembly!
United States constitution nullified by Supreme court's decision.
Revolution !
The people clubbed, arrested, imprisoned, shot and hung in violation
of law and constitution at behest of America's monopolists.
Free speech, free press, and right to assemble cost seven years' bloody
revolution of 1 770. But degenerate Americans style those who maintain
the Declaration of Independence as anarchists. Jefferson, Adams, Han-
cock, Washington, Franklin, Paine, Henry and other revolutionary sires
they ridicule as "fools," "cranks," etc. America's plutocrats of 1887 sneer
at these things.
Police censorship over press, speech and assemblage! Russia, Spain,
Italy, France — abashed! Working-womens' union prohibited by Chicago
police from singing the "Marseilles" at social entertainments!
Tyrants forge missing link. Chain complete. America joins "Inter-
national Brotherhood of Man." Proletariat of every clime and tongue,
from Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, London and Paris to Chicago, join
refrain and sing the
MARSEILLES.
Ye sons of Toil, awake to glory;
Hark! hark, what myrads bid you rise!
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary —
Behold their tears and hear their cries !
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding!
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band.
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding?
194
APPENDIX.
To arms, to arms, ye brave !
The avenging sword unsheath !
March on, march on, all hearts resolved.
On liberty or death!
With luxury and pride surrounded,
The vile insatiate despots dare.
Their thirst of power and gold unbounded,
To meet and vend the light and air.
To meet and vend the light and air;
Like beasts of burden would they load us,
Like gods M'ould bid their slaves adore;
But man is man, and who is more?
Then shall they longer lash and goad us?
— Chorus.
Oh! Liberty, can man resign thee
Once having felt thy gen'rous flame?
Can dungeons, bolts, or bars confine thee?
Or whips thy noble spirit tame?
Or whips thy noble spirit tame?
Too long the world has wept, bewailing
That falsehood's dagger tyrants wield;
But freedom is our sword and shield,
And all their arts are unavailing.
— Chorus.
Onward ! Citizen Train! Freedom shall not perish ! Let the welkin ring, and
from land to land labor's innumerable hosts proclaim — "Liberty! Fraternity!
Equality!" Salut!
A. R. Parsons,
Proletar.
Arreht of Mrs. Parsoxs and Children.
■ Under the deep shadow of that awful tragedy, enacted on the eleventh
day of November, many shameful deeds passed almost unnoticed ; the
gloom, so dense that the close of the century will scarcely see it lightened,
veiled the blackness of injustices that would have appalled the hearts of
the people if thrown up against the light of freedom in brighter days.
Now, it is well that they be brought forth for investigation ; the judgment
of the people must be given on proceedings done in the name of "law and
order," iii this so-called free country.
It will be remembered that in the extras of Friday Nov. 11th a
casual notice of the arrest of Mrs. Parsons "for persistent disobedience
of orders," and that of a lady friend for haranging the people " was
given. The officers were reported as being "very courteous and gentle,"
anl the ladies "were given arm-chairs in the registry office merely to keep
them away from the crowd and prevent trouble."
This is the true story : On Thursday evening after Governor Oglesby's
tardy decision had been given, Mrs. Parsons accompanied by Mr. Holmes
APPENDIX. 195
and myself, went to the jail to plead for a last sad interview. She was
denied an entrance, but was told by the deputy- sheriff in charge that she
would be admitted at half- past eight the following morning. At that
time she, with her children and myself was promptly as near to the gates
as the police would permit. Every street for two blocks away leading
towards the jail was crossed by a rope and guarded by a line of police
armed with Winchester rifles. At the first corner Mrs. Parsons quietly
made known her errand. The lieutenant said she could not get in there,
but that she should pass on to the next corner, and the officer there would
perhaps let her through.
She did so with the same result. Another captain told her she
must get an order from the sheriff ; on inquiring where he could be
found, she was told to go on to another corner where a message might be
sent to him. At this corner no one knew anything about it and again we
were sent on ; and so, for more than an hour we were urged along in a
veritable game of "Pussy wants a corner" that would have been redicu-
lous had it not been so tragical. Sometimes it was a deputy sheriff who
was to be found at a certain corner, sometimes it was the peculiarity of
location that promised an entrance beyond the death-line; but it was
always "not this corner but some other corner." Not once did an
officer say, "you positively cannot see your husband. You are forbidden
to enter his prison and bid him farewell," but always off'ered the induce-
ment that if she passed quietly along, at some indefinite point she
would be admitted.
Meanwhile the precious moments were flying ; sweet little Lulu's
face was blue with cold, and her beautiful eyes were swimming with tears.
Manly little Albert, too, was shivering in the raw atmosphere, as he
patiently followed his grief stricken mother from one warlike street to
another.
Then Mrs. Parsons besought the officers only to take the children in
for their father's last blessing and farewell ; for one last interview that
his memory might never be effaced from their young and impressible
minds ; one last look that the image of that noble father might dwell for-
ever in their heart of hearts ; one moment in which to listen to the last dear
words that his loving and prophetic soul might dictate to the darling
children left to live after him. In vain. The one humble prayer the
brave woman ever voiced to the authorities in power, was denied her.
They heeded her not except to hurry her along.
The last sad moments of her dear one's life were wasting so steadily,
so relentlessly. Who can picture her agony? Who can wonder at her
desperate protest against the " regulations of the law" which were killing
her husband and forbidding her approach. She determinedly crossed the
death line and told them " to kill her as they were murdering her hus-
band.'' No, they were not so merciful. They di*agged her outside,
inveigled her around to a (quieter corner, with the promise of "seeing
about it," and there ordered her, her two children and myself into a
l)atrol wagon awaiting us. What had the innocent children done ?
Pleaded dumbly with soft, tearful eyes for their father. WTiat was
my crime ? faithfulness to a sorrowing sister.
19() APPENDIX.
Once when some one asked me if I could not " prevail on that woman
to keep quiet and go home," I had answered :
" I have no such influence over her and would not exert it if I had.
Do you wonder that she is nearly distracted with grief at being driven
from pillar to post like this, when in one short hour her husband will be
dead? She has not seen him for five days, and now they deny her the
sacred right of a last good bye; why the worst despotisms in Europe are
not so bad as that."
At this a burly brutal-looking detective in citizen's clothes said:
" See here young woman ! you shut up or we will send you off in
the wagon! "
"Must I not even say this much, in a free country?" I asked in
surprise.
"No, you can't," he growled, with a fierce frown.
And this, I suppose, constituted " my harangue to the people on the
streets."
And so, into the patrol we were hustled, a heart-broken wife and
mother, two innocent tearful children, and the one friend near her. The
"polite" oflficers did not perhaps go out of their way to be brutal or
rough, but were about as " courteous " as so many wooden men moving
about like machines. Far from being given arm chairs in a comfortable
office, we were locked up in dark, dirty stone cells — Mrs. Parsons and
her children in one, myself in another.
And there — shame be it to America that I have it to relate ! there
we were stripped to the skin and searched ! even the children, crying
with fright, were undressed and carefully searched.
No excuse could be offered that we were ignorant foreigners and did
not understand the laws of the country, and that the safety of American
institutions depended on our being totally unarmed; for the blood of
revolutionary forefathers coursed in our veins, while the matron and
officers who gave the order (if there be any merit in being born in one
country rather than another) had not been here long enough to speak
our language correctly.
The woman ran her fingers through my hair, through the hems of
my skirts, the gathers of my undergarments, even to my stockings; I
asked her "what she expected to find."
" I don't know," she simpered, "this is my duty."
She clanged the doors behind her finally aitd we were left alone.
We could hear each other's voices but could not see one another. And
in those gloomy, underground cells we })assed those terrible, anxious hours
of Friday Nov. 11, 1887.
God knows her lot would have been bitter enough in her own com-
fortable home, with loving, sympathizing friends at her side to support
her in that awful time. But who dare dwell upon the reality- — the picture
of that devoted wife in such a place at such an hour ?
At a few minutes past twelve the matron came, and said coldly " It
is all over," and left us.
Not a soul came and asked the bereaved women if they could help
her to even a cup of cold water. And I, the one friend near her, could
Ai>PENDIX. 1^) i
only sit shivering with my face pressed to the cruel iron bars, listening to
her low, despairing moans, as helpless as herself..
Every friend who called to inquire after our whereabouts and welfare
was sent away without any information and we were not told that anyone
had been to see us.
Mr. Holmes came as early as he received word that we had been
arrested, and was not only denied any information, but was roughly
ordered away and threatened with arrest himself "* if he hung around
there."
At three o'clock Capt. Schaack came down and asked how long we
had been there, hypocritically expressed sorrow that we had been locked
up, and opened our prison doors. They had done their worst and Mrs.
Parsons was permitted to go to her desolated home.
And thus it was that while organized authority was judicially murder-
ing the husband and strangling '* the voice of the people." the wife and
children were locked up in a dungeon, that no unpleasant scene might
mar the smoothness of the proceedings. Where is there a parallel in his-
tory ? Only in the state where dying men are forbidden to speak a few
last words can such a scene be possible.
Lizzie M. Holmes.
Last Hours of Life.
The news of Governor Ogelsby's refusal to commute the death sentence
except as to Fielden and Schwab was received by all the prisoners with
perfect composure.
The deputy sheriff who was with Parsons for three hours on the night
of Nov. 10, undertook, when he was relieved at one o'clock A. M. to tell
what the condemned man had said, but when he began to realize the
enormity of the task, he cut his narrative short by saying: ""He was verj^
cheerful and hopeful." Such was indeed the case. Parsons was never
in better humor than he was that night. He seemed to forget entirelv
that he would have to die within twelve hours, so interested did he become
in his own harangue to the death watch. He talked about socialism,
about anarchy, the Haymarket, and his wife and childi-en. It was not
until he had reached this subject that he manifested any sorrow or regret,
and the more he talked about it the more sorrowful he became. He said
his wife was a brave woman, a true wife and a good mother.
During the early part of the night his raj^t soul ])oured itself forth
in song. He sang the old yet beautiful ballad:
ANNIE LAURIE.
Maxwelton's braes are bonny.
Where early fa's the dew.
And 'twas there that Annie Laurie
198 APPENDIX.
(xave me her promise true;
Gave me her promise true,
Which ne'er forgot will be,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie,
I'd lay me down and dee.
Her brow is like the snawdrift;
Her throat is like the swan;
Her face it is the fairest,
That e'er the sun shone on:
That e'er the sun shone on,
And dark blue is her e'e,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie,
I'd lay me down and dee.
Like dew on th' go wan lying.
Is the fa' o' her fairy feet.
And like winds in summer sighing,
Her voice is low and sweet;
Her voice is low and sweet,
And she's a' the world to me,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie,
I'd lay me down and dee.
As the clear tenor voice rang through the gloomy corridors the other
prisoners raised themselves on their elbows and listened- Doubtless to
many the beautiful lines recalled tender memories of other days.
Early the morning of the 11th all the doomed men were awake.
Parsons ate fried oysters and seemed to enjoy them. After breakfasting,
he recited Marc Cook's beautiful poem, entitled '* Waiting,'" with smiliii^
features :
Tell me, O sounding sea! I pray,
Et( rnally undulating,
Where is the good ship that sailed away
Once on a long-gone summer's day —
Sailed and left me waiting.
No braver ship was ever seen.
As over the sunlit waters
She glided on with stately mien
Of a fair, white-vested ocean queen-
A queen among Neptune's daughters.
Her sails were white as the wings of a dove —
Alas, for the fate she was daring !
Gayly she rode the waves above,
Gayly, as if all conscious of
The precious freight she was bearing.
And never before sailed ship from shore
With a cargo half so precious ;
Youth, hope and love my good ship bore,
And all the fair visions that come no more
In sadder days to refresh us.
Yes, hope and love, the dreams of fame,
Youths sweet self-satisfaction,
Ambition, which kindles the blood to flame,
The lusty longing to win a name
On life's broad fiekl of action:
APPENDIX. 1 99
All these my good ship bore away —
With such rare treasures freighted
She sailed on that long-flown summer's day:
How long it IS no tongue can say —
Yet still have T waited — waited !
And ever this barren shore have I paced
With eyes still wearily straining,
Gazing out on the water's waste,
Where naught remains of the faith that I placed
In the blue waves, uncomplaining.
And so, through the long and desolate years,
Have I watched for my ship's returning ;
Watched and waited mid doubts and fears,
Waited and watched, when the scalding tears
Adown my cheeks were burning.
The seasons have gone and rolled away, )
Each with its burden freighted.
But whether December or whether May,
In flush of the morn or twilight gray.
Still have I waited — waited !
The busy world to the New has turned,
Its pulses palpitating ;
Again have life's bitter lessons been learned,
And hands have labored and hearts have burned,
While I for my ship have been waiting. ^
But now I am weary and hope is flown
And the sea's sad undulating
Breaks on my ear like a dismal moan;
My ship has gone down in the waters unknown,
And vain has been all my waiting.
After awhile spent in conversation, the question of his funeral arising,
he again drew upon his retentive memory and expressed his inmost
thoughts in these beautiful lines, from the same author as the preceding:
A FAREWELL.
Come not to my grave with your mourninge*
With your lamentations and tears.
With your sad forebodings and fears;
When my lips are dumb,
Do not come.
Bring no long train of carriages.
No hearse crowned with waving plumes.
Which the gaunt glory of death illumes;
But w.th hands on my breast
Let me rest.
Insult not my dust with your pity.
Ye who're left on this desolate shore
Still to suffer and lose and deplore
'Tis I should, as I do.
Pity you.
For me no more are the hardships,
The bitterness, heartaches, and strife,
The sadness and sorrow of life.
But the glory divine
This is mine.
200 APPENDIX. S
Poor creatures! Afraid of the darkness,
Who groan at the anguish to come ?
How silent I go to my home;
Cease your sorrowful bell ;
I am well!
During the reading of the death warrant his face was a study. His
eyes were unnaturally brilliant, but whatever emotion he felt was firmly
checked by the indomitable spirit which had hitherto sustained him. He
toyed carelessly with his mustache and let his eyes rest easily upon the
objects about him. As the men moved forward Parsons turned to the Jenkins'
of the press, who were scrutinizing every action and said sarcastically:
" Won't you come inside ?"
WTien the halter was placed about his neck he never faltered. He
stood erect, looking earnestly yet reproachfully at the people before him.
The nooses were quickly adjusted, the caps pulled down, and a hasty move-
ment made for the traps. Then from beneath the hoods came these words :
Spies: "There will be a time when our silence will be more pow-
erful than the voices you strangle to-day!"
Fischer : ' ' Hurrah for anarchy — ' '
Engel: "Hurrah for anarchy!''
Fischer: "This is the happiest moment of my life!"
Parsons: "Will I be allowed to speak, O men of America y Let
me speak. Sheriff Matson! Let the voice of the people be heard! O "
But the signal had been given, and the officers of the state performed their
mission by strangling both speakers and speech.
Last Letter to an Old Comrade.
Cook County Jail, Nov. 11, 1887. — My Dear Comrade Lum: Eight
(8) o'clock A.M. The guard has just awakened me. I have washed face
and di-ank cup of coffee. The doctor asked if I wanted stimulants. I
said no. The dear " boys," Engel, Fischer and Spies, saluted me with
firm voices.
Please see Sheriff Matson and take charge of my papers and letters.
Among them find MS. letters from Gen. W. H. Parsons' book — return it
to Norfolk, Ya. Please have my book on "Anarchism: Its Philosophy and
Scientific Basis" put into good shape, etc.
Later. — Well, my dear old comrade, the fatal hour draws near.
Csesar kept me awake till late at night with the noise (music) of hammer
and saw, erecting his throne, my scaffold. Refinement! Civilization!
Matson (sheriff) tells me he refused to agree to let Caesar (state) secrete
my body, and hie has just got my wife's address from me to send her my
remains. Magnanimous Caesar! Alas, good-bye I Hail the social revolu-
tion! Salutations to all. A. R. Parsons.
TO THE PUBLIC!
The Following Books and Pamphlets Will be Sent,
Post-paid, on Receipt of Price.
The Haymarket Speech of Albert R. Parsons,
Delivered at the Havmarket on Mav 4th, 1886, and repeated by him be-
fore the jury. Paper 1 $0 10
The Facts Concerning the Eight Condemned Leaders.
By Leon Lewis. Mr. Lewis is a writer of national reputation, and sets
forth the facts concerning the great trial in a spirited and trenchant man-
f ner. Paper 10
A Concise History of the Trial,
Taken from the Official Records. The only authentic history of the
great trial ever written. By Dyer D. Lum. Paper 35
The Accused The Accusers.
Famous Speeches of the Eight Anarchists, delivered before Judge Gary
on October 7th, 8th, and 9th, 1886. Paper ._ \ 25
August Spies Autobiography.
Containing portraits of August Spies and Nina Van Zandt Spies, with
notes and explanations. Paper, 25c. Cloth 65
Was it a Fair Trial?
By Gen. M. M. Trumbull. (Enlarged edition of Gen. Trumbull's
Pamphlet now being prepared.) Paper _-_ 10
Anarchy.
By C. L. James. Historical and Scientiiic. Paper 10
Letters to Young People,
By Prince Kropotkin. Paper ^ • 05
French and German Socialism.
Pr';f. R. T. Ely. Paper 25c. Cloth 75
Manifesto of the Communists.
By Karl Marx. Important to Investigators 10
Law and Authority.
By Prince Kropotkin 05
Anarchy and the Anarchists.
A Sermon by Rev. J. C. Kimball, of Hartford, Conn. Paper 10
Our Boarders.
A pamphlet, by Lizzie M. Swank, is soon to be issued. Those who have
read the writings of fhis well-known and talented woman will appreciate
the treat in store for them. In this forthcoming work will be contained
many of her miscellaneous articles
Conventional Lies of Our Civilization.
A Scathing Criticism of Modern Society; by Max Nordau
Women in the Past, Present and Future.
By August Bebel
Cabinet Photographs of Albert R. Parsons as
" The Carpenter in Waukesha!'
This photograph represents Mr. Parsons as he appeared while working as a
carpenter, at Waukesha, Wis., where he sojourned seven weeks after his
escape from Chicago. In this figure, in slouch hat, workman's apron
and bare arms, it is difficult to recognize the features of the
Ex-Editor of the Alarm. The eyes only are his.
SINGLE PHOTOGRAPHS, (POST-PAID), - - - - 25 Cents.
Song, -ANNIE LAURIE:
Arranged in Sheets, with Mu^ic, and Portrait of Albert R. Parsons.
Cabinet Photographs of
''Our Martyrs!'
EACH,v - - - - - - 25 Cents.
Grotij) Photographs of the
''Five Martyrs!'
Both bust and full length Pictures, tastefully arranged. These are genuine
photographs, and not lithographs.
PRICES RANGING FROM 50 Cents to $1.00;
Address - MRS. A. R. PARSONS, - Room 35.
169 Washington Street, CHICAGO.
A JOURNAL OF ANARCHISM.
DYER D. LUM, - - Editor.
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS.
LIZZIE M. SWANK, Illinois. GERTRUDE B. KELLY, New York.
GEORGIA REPLOGLE, California. JOHN F. KELLY, New York,
C. L. JAMES, Wisconsin. GEO. SCHUMM, Minnesota.
JOS. LABADIE, Michigan. ALBERT CURRLiN, Missouri.
G. C. CLEMENS.'.Kansas. W. C. OWEN, Oregon.
5^^°°° Every reader interested in Social Questions, all who are seeking information regarding-
Anarchy, what it If, what it proposes, what answers it gives to popular objections, and how it would
treat mooted problems, -will find in The Alabm its philosophical and practical sides discussed by
able writers.
For One Year, - - $1.50. For Six Months, - 75 Cents.
Address all letters to DYER D. LUM,
Room 23, 169 Washington Street, CHICAGO, ILL-
NOTICE.
The absorbing interest centering in the lives, the work, and heroie
<leath of the five martyrs to liberty makes a further revievsr of them not
only desirable, but necessary. With this end in view% the posthumous
papers of Albert R. Parsons will soon be published in book form at a
low price. This book will contain the autobiography of the American
anarchist; an account of his numerous missionary journeyings, with
letters to his wife and friends while engaged in spreading socialistic
truths among the miners of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the farmers and
townsmen of the west, and the workmen of the cities; extracts from
his published articles; reminiscences and anecdotes, and a faithful and
graphic account of his escape from Chicago on the night of May 4,
1886, his wanderings, his life in Waukesha, and his adventurous return
to Chicago for trial with his fellow-comrades'. The whole will make a
book of no common interest, and will be read by thousands whose
hearts beat in sympathy with the cause of Universal Progress.
i
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^^S 14 DAY USE ^ti'^feS
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J'^M This book is due on the last date stamped below, or
.^^ ..;^:?>J? on the date to which renewed.
^f ^S Renewed books are subjea to immediate recall
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REC.CIR.OCT 2 78
NOV 1 '67 -9 AM
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M161694
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY
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